Beyond The Long Darkness
by iceyly
Summary: Multichapter, AU – Aqua had thought that things would be simple once she made it back from the Realm of Darkness: find Terra, then bring him to Ventus' side to wake him up. She doesn't quite expect a complication in form of cloak-wearing strangers that have taken over her castle in the last ten years…
1. Prologue

Welcome to what may or may not be my NaNoWriMo project. (Yes, it's not even November yet, I'm aware. I just have no self-control. |D;)

Admittedly, it's been a long time since I've actually tried my hand at mulitchapter project, never mind one that's as big as this one is shaping up to be. Anyway, regardless of how much I'll actually write in November, I'm going to try to stick with this story!

One thing I should note in the beginning: even though I'm using the games as base, I'm going to draw from basically all the sources we have for material, which means there may be elements from the mangas and the novels as well, though I will probably put something in the notes for people who haven't read either if that's the case. Also, some dialog may come from the japanese translation rather than the international one! If certain information doesn't line up or dialog choices are different to the english track – this is absolutely intentional!

That being said, I hope you are ready for this ride!

Enjoy!

 **\- Beyond The Long Darkness -**

 **\- Prologue -**

To say it's been a while since Aqua last felt anything resembling hope would be a flat-out lie, Aqua knows – she is painfully aware just how worn out she had been just before Mickey had found her.

She had been at peace then, just with the knowledge that Terra and Ven are both safe in the Outside World – but are they truly? – so ready to give in and let herself fade into the Darkness…

The past decade has been… challenging, to say the least; she'll be the first to admit it.

(Has it truly been so long? There is no reason to doubt Mickey's word on it, but still… slowly it's catching up to Aqua just how much time she has _lost_ wandering the Dark Realm _._ )

But now… now that Mickey has found his Keyblade of Darkness and they are so close to the Door to Kingdom Hearts, she almost dares to hope… could she finally find her way back? Mickey may not know the way out, but his company is heartwarming – he is as optimistic as he is impulsive.

His mere presence chases away the loneliness that has weighted her down for so long.

She can't help but wonder though, about the identity of the Keybearer that will close the Door from the other side that Mickey had declared as already cast… Terra's whereabouts are unknown after all, and Ventus is still fast asleep…

"With this Key and the Key that Sora has on the other side, we can close the Door!" Mickey declares, answering that question and drawing Aqua back out of her thoughts (even with him here, it's still easy – too easy really – for her to get lost in her own musings, she thinks).

"Now, if Riku were here…"

But why would he be here, what would a child like him – maybe not a _child_ , Aqua amends in thought, even though it seems almost like yesterday that she met that reserved boy Terra had chosen and his brightly smiling companion on those Islands – do in a place like this… what are those children doing mixed up in saving the worlds when they can hardly be older than Ventus was back before he'd gone to sleep.

Before she can even formulate that thought into a question, Mickey brightens and points ahead to a figure running along the barely lit path towards the Door in the distance: "There he is!"

He jumps forward a few steps, tail swinging in what seems equal part excitement and impatience as he turns back towards her: "Everything is ready now! Come on, Aqua, we'll–"

However, before Mickey can finish that sentence, the ground beneath them starts to tremble, an unholy sound echoing through the realm around them, one that Aqua has come to associate with mass accumulations of those damn Dwellers – _Heartless,_ Mickey had called them Heartless – and surely enough, the Demon Tide rises into being behind them… but instead of going after the two of them, the Tide rushes straight over their heads towards the running boy ahead.

Aqua doesn't even hesitate to jump into action, Master Keeper in her hand before she even thinks about calling it, chains of light forming at her command.

"As if I'd let you-!" she shouts as she captures the core of the Tide, the chains keeping it neatly bound as her teeth grind together; keeping ahold of struggling Dwellers is even harder now than it had been during their earlier battle.

She knows for sure: she can't let them hurt the boy – or worse, escape into the Realm of Light.

"Just go!" she shouts, even as Mickey protests as though they have time to argue about this – they don't; he needs to close the Door, and she is going to buy him the time to get there.

She can't help the scream that escapes her when the Tide breaks free from her chains, and sweeps Mickey to the side and her off her feet, air rushing past her ears and for a second Aqua closes her eyes, bracing herself for impact–

It never comes.

Instead Aqua finds herself tumbling over the ground after a blazing light cuts through the Dwellers that had her in their grip – blazing, yet gentle, and for a moment even Aqua herself is stunned as her hand falls into the pocket of her skirt and pulls free her glowing Wayfinder.

The bonds she's made… her friends have rescued her yet again, it seems.

("Terra, Ven… _Thank you_!")

There is no time to focus on that though, not when the Tide is still up in arms, and so Aqua rolls back on her feet, her grip tight on Master Keeper. At her side Mickey – he's somehow lost his shirt – has found his footing once more as well.

"Are you all right?" he asks a little breathless, and more than a little worried; but Aqua can't spare him more than a glance before she's already casting a Thundaga to scatter the Tide as it comes rushing at them.

"I'm fine!" she shouts back before rushing forward, Master Keeper moving in a blur that dispatches the small Shadows on the ground while she waits for her chance to strike the core of the Tide properly. "Mickey, go! You need to close that door for good!"

Even if she can't see him while her focus lies with the Tide, his hesitance lingers in the air before he makes a short noise of resignation, then finally relents and turns away.

"Take care, Aqua!" he says, just before he finally rushes off. "Once this is done, we'll go back together."

Aqua nods grimly as she watches the Tide swirl in circles above her head, and for a moment she thinks of Ven sleeping in his lonely chair, of Terra fighting the Darkness to the best of his ability… it doesn't matter how many times she has to face the Demon Tide if only it means that she'll find her way back to them, and even though Mickey is probably already too far away to hear her, she answers: "It's a promise!"

* * *

Every breath, every step that Riku has taken since waking in this dark world feels like a painful strain on his entire being – if he's to believe that strange voice that had told him to search for the door between the realms, he's just his Heart right now, so how he can even feel anything resembling pain is really beyond him, but here he is.

It does explain why he's been feeling so faint… like a shade of himself.

Why is he listening to any mysterious voice at this point though given how that had ended not too long ago…

Well, at least this voice had encouraged him to listen to his own actual Heart on the topic of Sora and Kairi, rather than to his damn insecurities.

Still, Riku thinks he might have grown a little stronger again ever since that conversation – knowing that Sora and Kairi are safe in spite of how terribly he's messed up does a lot to settle his mind and help him focus.

Kairi must have made it out of Hollow Bastion somehow, and Sora… he isn't sure how Sora might have regained his Heart, but if anyone could do it, it's his best friend.

When he actually spots the Door the voice had talked about ("It takes two Keys, two Hearts to close it", they had said), he manages to break into a sprint towards it – it's his fault that it's come this far after all; he shouldn't have listened to Maleficent, or Ansem for that matter; no matter how much their words soothed his wounded pride and justified him in his feeling of abandonment.

He should have stuck with Sora in Traverse Town, in spite of what Donald had to say about that, and maybe then things wouldn't have gone so horribly wrong; maybe then he wouldn't have put either of his friends in so much danger.

There's still a chance to set things right again though, to close the Door and make sure that no more Darkness escapes into the Outside World.

Then, when he's almost reached the Door something changes, a loud clicking sound reverberates in the air around him as the Doors swing open slightly and for a second Riku feels frozen in place. His whole being shivers as _something_ slams into him – it's almost like being torn from his body all over again, except… except in reverse?

A second later he actually draws breath and can feel the air fill his lungs, instead of just feeling his being (Heart? Spirit?) going through the motion.

His body – this is his body, Sora must have defeated Ansem somehow – still hurts from the strain placed on it by this place he's found himself in (the Darkness?) and from the beating he'd received under Ansem's control, but it's still easier to move now.

Riku has just a few seconds to marvel at this before he picks up on Donald's panicked moaning ("The Heartless! Hurry!") through the crack between the doors, and one look around confirms that there are plenty of Heartless around him that he hadn't noticed before.

Well, he'll figure out what to do about them once he's done his job _here_ , Riku thinks as he pushes himself to cross the last few steps to the Door, just in time to hear Sora exhausted note of "I can't–"

And well, he's not going to let Sora despair on his watch, so Riku says: "Don't give up!"

Then he grabs for the edge of the Door himself, putting all his remaining strength into pulling it closed.

"Come on, Sora! Together, we can do it!"

Together, the two of them have always been invincible after all… and maybe if Riku hadn't forgotten all about that, maybe then things would have been different.

The Door is slow to move, even with all four of them doing their best to move the Door's wings and Riku is acutely aware of the way the Heartless are gathering at his back, can hear the swish of small Shadows moving over the ground and the rumble of larger Heartless rising into being in the distance.

"It's hopeless!" Donald declares, even though they are almost there, even though it's just a few inches missing and Riku is almost ready to snap at him–

But then, there is a swooshing sound that Riku is familiar enough with; it's the sound of a Keyblade cutting through a Heartless and for a second, he turns his head to get a glance at just who's turned up to their rescue, just in time to see something (someone? A mouse!?) take stance at the top of a small hill.

"Your Majesty!" Donald and Goofy cry out in relief, solving this particular mystery… Riku had heard Maleficent mentioning their King off-hand once or twice; the fairy had been just a little irritated by the fact that she hadn't been able to pin down the King's location.

"Now, Sora!" the King says – and he knows this voice, Riku realizes, it's the same that had been talking to him earlier, that had assured him when he had worried about Sora and Kairi – and brandishes his gleaming Keyblade. "Let's close this door for good!"

"Close it, quick!" Donald agrees, his earlier despair now forgotten in light of his King's arrival, but nevertheless Sora hesitates, and for the first time Riku is forced to acknowledge what closing this door will mean for him and the King, that there is no way they can close this door and escape out through it at the same time…

(Maybe he deserves no less after all that's happened…)

Before he can even make up his mind for good, the King is already quick to assure them (or maybe just Sora): "Don't worry! There will always be a door to the light."

While Goofy affirms that they can trust in his, their King, Riku throws a glance around – there is some fighting going on somewhere behind the King, he can hear the sounds of the clash even here – so he shouts: "Now! They are coming!"

They can't delay closing the door for much longer, if they truly want to keep the Darkness away, even Riku knows that much.

That seems to be what gets those three wise guys on the other side moving, and just before the Door closes, when there is just a second for Riku to say _something_ , to maybe apologize… he looks at Sora, and back at the mistakes he's made – things that a thousand apologies couldn't make up for – thinks about Kairi, who is somewhere in the Realm of Light and hopefully safe, and finally he says:

"Take care of her."

Because it's just Sora and Kairi without Riku now, because Riku cannot protect either of them anymore – but Sora will protect Kairi, he knows, even if Sora only nods in return; it's a promise after all.

Then the Door falls close and Riku takes a step back from it while the King waves his Keyblade to seal the Door, his eyes closing for a moment as he allows himself to relax – Sora and Kairi are truly safe now, he's fixed his mistake somewhat-

"Riku, watch out!"

He drops to the ground at the King's warning call, catching himself with one hand before pushing back up to his feet, hundreds of Shadows spilling over the space where he'd stood a second earlier – they aren't safe here, he knew that, he should know better than to just relax – and turns around to get a look at what has come to attack him and the King…

But instead of the King or a Heartless, he comes to face with a blue-haired woman who is cartwheeling over the ground towards him, her hand tight around her Keyblade as she comes up to her feet.

His eyes narrow for a second as a distant ache shoots through his heart – a longing pang that he's used to associate with missing Kairi… or well, Sora – his lips moving without permission as he says: "…Aqua, you–"

The woman turns back to him, surprise flickering through blue eyes – it probably mirrors his own pretty well because Riku has absolutely no idea how he knows her name (and it has to be hers, it feels _right_ somehow), and he's even more certain of it when she frowns and asks:

"How do you–"

Before she can finish her sentence, the King joins them with his own Keyblade up and ready to block the Heartless' next attack: "Let's safe the talk for later; first we got to deal with the Heartless."

Then he turns to Riku, head tilting up and it's only then that Riku realizes that he's actually almost twice the height of the King (he'd seemed so much taller earlier): "I know you're exhausted, Riku, but right now we could use your help too!"

There is something so very earnest about his words – as though he has no idea what Riku has done, that he is a good part of why they are stuck here in first place… or maybe rather as though he _knows_ and just doesn't _care…_ – and there is no way that Riku can refuse him.

"Of course, Your Majesty."

The woman sends him a confused glance at the title that Riku ignores entirely, just like he ignores the alarmed gasp that escapes her when he shapes the Darkness into the Soul Eater.

Much as he would like to discard the Darkness and the sword made from it himself, it's all that he has right now to fight with.

It'll have to do.

* * *

Even after all the time – ten years apparently – that Aqua has spent fighting Heartless, even after all those Darksides she faced in the fallen Enchanted Dominion, she has to admit: The Demon Tide is a class of its own.

It's not an intelligent opponent, not like Vanitas or that pawn of Xehanort's in the Keyblade Graveyard, but one that moves entirely on instinct and in some ways that is just that much more dangerous.

Danger alone isn't enough to deter Aqua though, especially not when for the first time in _ten years_ it feels like there might be an end in sight to her stay in this dreadful prison of a Realm – she and Mickey have made a promise now, and she intends to keep it.

The Demon Tide is, of course, utterly unimpressed even in the face of her determination.

It attacks in similar pattern as it had when they had fought it on the Island's shore, sometimes swirling patterns in the air, then rushing right at her again before it makes up its mind to try and make it past her.

Once the Tide almost makes it, but in its haste to escape towards the Door, it leaves the core open for Aqua to snare in her chains of light once more.

She isn't able to trap it for long without Mickey to give it another target but her to focus on, but it's enough to enrage the Tide and take its mind off the draw towards the Door to the Realm of Light.

Finally, the core starts to glow in angry red, which is as much encouragement as it is a warning. It won't be as easy to attack as before and its attacks will be much more vicious, but its health is fairly low at this point, so it won't take much more to defeat the Tide.

At the same time a bright light flashes from somewhere behind her and Aqua can't help a small smile, because she knows the feeling of a Lock turned closed. Mickey's done it, the Door has been sealed and there is no way for the Heartless to escape outside anymore.

The fight has moved closer towards where Mickey, Riku and the Door were before, has claimed more space now that the Tide has changed to its tornado-like form, but Aqua hadn't even realized how close she has gotten to the others until she comes out of a cartwheel and suddenly faces the silver-haired boy from the Islands.

His sea-green eyes widen a little almost as though he recognizes her, her name the first word that falls from his lips – how though, she hadn't told them her name back when they had met the first time, had she? And it has been so long for him, does he even remember her in first place?

Mickey arrives just before she can really ask Riku about that – "Let's safe the talk for later; first we got to deal with the Heartless." – and he is right of course, the Demon Tide has drawn back a little to prepare its next attack on them, so Aqua swallows her questions.

(Even though there are so many more adding themselves to her list in the span of the next few seconds – why is Riku summoning a _sword of_ _Darkness_ instead of a Keyblade and really, she wonders once more, why is the boy here with them in first place?

What had happened really in the Realm of Light… she'll have to grill Mickey about this properly once the Demon Tide is defeated for good – that and the honorific Riku had used.)

The Demon Tide approaches again as swirling tornado of Heartless, hiding the core just before hurling pieces of itself far into the air and at them, and Aqua has just enough time to share a glance with Mickey before she's on the move again.

There is really no dodging this attack she's learned during their fight at the Island's shore; all they can do is try to block as much of the damage as possible and then heal up once the Tide has run out of steam.

What she and Mickey both forgot to account for is Riku's presence in this fight though, and Aqua's heart clenches in ice-cold fear when she sees the boy trying to dodge his way towards the edge of the circle the Tide is drawing around them, apparently mindless of the damage he's taking, because she never sees him stop to block or heal up.

She sends a barrier spell his way when he looks like he's just about to fall over – he had already seemed exhausted at the start of the fight, to be honest – then double-jumps up and slides through the air towards him.

"Thanks." Riku mumbles when she arrives and casts first another Barrier around them to repel the attacking globs of Shadows, then a Curaga to get him back on his feet.

"I've never seen Shadows act anything like _this_ before…" he says then with a frown, his back pressed against hers, while the blobs keep raining down against her magic.

"Were they ever anything more than mindless beasts?" Aqua asks, mostly rhetorical while bringing up Master Keeper to break the Barrier in a counter and force the blobs to give them a little breathing space.

"No, but–"

Aqua shakes her head sharply, cutting Riku off: "Get ready. The Tide is going to be vulnerable once this attack ends."

And indeed, true to her prediction, the attack ends just a moment later and the core of the Tide just hovers before them, stunned and exhausted from the intense attack, so Aqua breaks away from Riku and storms at Heartless.

Mickey is already by her side when she makes it to the core, his Keyblade a whirl of action as they cut at the Heartless again and again and again, and with every connecting hit her heart grows a little lighter; they are going to make it past this beast, they are going to go _home_ –

"Watch out!" shouts Riku from somewhere behind them, just in time for Aqua to push and flip backwards and out of the way of the swirling Shadows that rise to protect the core.

There isn't much life left in the Tide; she knows this, so she lifts her Keyblade and takes aim, focusing all her remaining magic into one vicious Prism Rain and a second later, rainbow-colored orbs spin through the air before clashing right into the core.

An eerie moan escapes the conglomerate of Heartless as they collapse in on themselves, dissolving into wisps of Darkness and finally Aqua allows herself to sigh, tension draining from her body.

The fight is over… they are safe.

Mickey steps up beside her, dismissing his new Keyblade into a swirl of lights: "Well, I guess that's that. Now, to find our way back home–"

The sound of something, someone slumping abruptly to the ground cuts him off and Aqua turns just in time to see Riku's eyelids flicker, a small groan escaping the boy before his eyes close and his breath evens out.

She's by his side a second later to check on him – "Heal," she whispers and pushes the energy of another Curaga into them all, but it's not enough to wake the boy.

When she looks up at Mickey, he doesn't seem surprised at all.

"I suppose that's to be expected… between being pushed out of his body, being cast into this Realm and this fight just now, it's actually surprising that he held on so well," he says, then takes a step closer to study the boy with a gentle smile. "I knew he had to be a stubborn one when I couldn't get through to him at first, but the extend of it surprises even me."

Aqua turns the boy to rest the back of his head against her legs, absently brushing back his silver bangs as she processes those words and wordlessly reassesses his age – he's definitely younger than Ven was, when he had run off despite their Master's command.

There is so much that she wants to ask… about Riku and about what's happened in the Realm of Light… but then she settles for a teasing tone: "You know, you have a lot of explaining to do… Your _Majesty_."

Mickey just laughs at that, one hand coming up to scratch the back of his head and well… at least he does have the grace to look sheepish: "Well, you know that's not really that big a deal usually, unless I'm home."

Aqua nods at that, of course it would be 'a big deal' considering that he's apparently a _King_ in his home world (Queen Minnie's husband, possibly? She certainly wouldn't be surprised).

"I know what you mean… though, we got to keep moving too! The Heartless won't leave us alone for long if we stay put. Besides, we got to find that door to the light."

"Yes…" Aqua says and turns the boy so that she can pull him up on her back, grunting faintly as his dead-weight settles against her frame; he is a little heavier than Ven was, she thinks.

"Let's go find our way home!"

\- _To Be Continued_ -

First of all, all the thanks to The Boyfriend for giving me feedback and being ruthless on pointing out my typos.

Second, I usually post an update about the progress of my writing every other day on tumblr (iceboundary)! Feel free to send me an ask if you have a questions or want to chat about the story!

Also, please consider leaving a review! :3


	2. Act 01 – Chapter 01

Welcome to My-Selfcontrol-Is-Terrible Take 2; though it's probably going to take a while until I post the next chapter after this. I want to spend the whole November on writing (though probably not finishing) this story and then start a somewhat regular posting schedule in December!

(Once a week? Once every two weeks? IDEK it depends on how much I actually write during NaNoWriMo?)

ANYWAY fair warning ahead: It's going to take a little while until this fic properly diverges from canon and most characters are at a similar level of information – the first few chapters of Act 1, which covers Chains of Memories-slash-Reverse/Rebirth, will mainly deal with Aqua being updated on the things that happened after she fell into the Realm of Darkness and Riku working his way through Castle Oblivion on his own, while other characters react to the slight shift in behavior that early exposure to Aqua causes in Riku.

So yea, Aqua isn't going to magically fix everyone's problems by just not having been carried off by the Demon Tide – she has to find out what those problems are first of all, and she has her own set of troubles to deal with as well!

Also, I may or may not have to bridge a plot hole or three that just appear when you have canon being added to over a span of sixteen years. /stares at Mickey especially

In any case, please enjoy! :3

 **\- Beyond The Long Darkness -**

 **\- Act 01 – Chapter 01 -**

The stars are out, Aqua notes, as they make their way along the barren white path that meanders its way into the Darkness before them.

She isn't entirely sure if they are the same as in the Realm of Light, if the worlds shine so brightly that they penetrate even the deep Darkness of the Dark World, or if they just remnants of the fallen worlds… a light that even the Heartless have not managed to extinguish.

(Just like her, them.)

Either way, the sight is comforting.

Riku is a warm weight against her back, his arms hanging over her shoulders and his breath even… carrying him is slowing them down a little and Aqua knows she'll need a break from that sooner or later, but it reminds her that now is an excellent time to ask Mickey just what exactly had happened in the Realm of Light.

She turns her head slightly, eyes lingering on the profile of Riku's slack face. He is so young… too young to be stuck with them in the Dark World.

"Mickey…" she starts, "What happened to him?"

Mickey's lips press together and even though she now looks down to him, he isn't meeting her eyes.

"It's complicated," he finally admits. "When I left Disney Castle to investigate why the Worlds were falling so quickly, I knew we'd need another Keyblade Wielder. That's why I left orders for Donald and Goofy to find that person."

"To be honest, I had hoped they would manage to locate either Terra or you," he continues. "Master Yen Sid hasn't taken another apprentice since myself, and we didn't know where you were or if you had managed to pass on the power. Master Yen Sid said the stars told him of the existence of a successor to the Keyblade though, so we knew that we had to start looking."

She nods at that, lips pressing together. "But that should have been Riku… he is the one that Terra passed the power to. The weapon he used just now to fight the Tide… it's one of Darkness."

And very certainly not a Keyblade.

"I don't know what exactly happened," Mickey says, frowning faintly. "Just that something happened to those Islands – their home world – that made it fall and that Sora ended up with the Keyblade at the time."

He looks up, eyes resting on the unconscious boy.

"I've heard whispers about Riku while I was trying to find an entrance into the Realm of Darkness, and I tried to get through to him… but the Darkness was too thick for me to be able to speak to his Heart."

He scowls faintly. "I guess, we have Maleficent to thank for _that_."

"Maleficent?!" Aqua hisses out the name, her grip on Riku tightening as her body tenses. She remembers the evil witch that had led her to doubt in Terra only too well. "What does _she_ have to do with this?"

"She's the one that's been leading the Heartless in the Realm of Light," explains Mickey, his tail flickering from side to side behind him again. "And from what I have been able to discern, she was the one who found Riku after what happened to his Islands."

Well… that explains the Darkness, Aqua thinks, her Heart aching. Isn't this exactly why she hadn't given Sora the power… so that he could make sure that Riku wouldn't end up threading the same path as Terra had?

(So that they wouldn't end up having to fight _another_?)

There is no telling how the Keyblade had ended up with Sora instead, and no changing it now either.

"I guess, we'll have to help him to overcome the Darkness," she finally says, with another glance back at the boy sleeping at her back, then down to Mickey, who nods enthusiastically.

Just like her, he isn't willing to give up on Riku just yet.

They walk in companionable silence for a while, and just as Aqua wants to propose a break so she can put down the boy she is carrying and allow herself to rest a little, Riku shifts at her back.

Aqua sees his eyelids flutter a little when she turns her head, a groan slipping over his lips before he mutters something she can't make out into her shoulder.

She stops when a fragment of light suddenly spins into being before her, but before she or Mickey can even think to do something about it, Riku reaches into it from over her shoulder, his fingers closing… around a card!?

Then he huffs, a smirk tugging at his lips as he says:

"This seemed like a boring place to take a nap anyway."

And then, from one second to the next, he is gone.

* * *

 _[He dreams of the sound of the waves, of Sora and Kairi, and sitting in the sand with the both of them, curled up in a mess of limbs and laughing with a carelessness that he hasn't felt in years…_

 _Then, the clouds darken over their Island, thunder rumbling in the distance and suddenly both his friends are slipping from his grip, disappear as the Darkness grows and a booming voice calls:_

" _Riku…" ]_

"Where am I…," is the first thing that slips past Riku's lips as he wakes, slowly growing aware of the grey space he's floating in. There is a voice whispering in his ears, familiar-yet-not, a deep murmur telling him to stay asleep.

Ever contrary, he jolts awake and finally remembers what had happened, voice sharp as he says: "Aqua, the King… where are they? We fought off that giant Heartless, after closing the Door… and then–"

Then all that had happened since his fights against Sora in Hollow Bastion – the possession by Ansem, the trek through the Realm of Darkness before closing the Door and then fighting the Heartless – had caught up with him all at once, he guesses.

"Right now, the light of awakening is too bright for you," the voice warns. "It will only hurt you."

Riku scoffs at that, resenting the implication of the idea that the Light will hurt him. "You're talking like _I'm_ a creature of the Darkness."

He's not. He's used the Darkness, he's been tainted by it, by Maleficent, by Ansem – but he's done with all of that.

He's cast the Darkness aside. He isn't just some demon to be cut down with the Keyblade, like a Heartless.

"Do you want to know the truth?" the voice asks as an orb of light appears and starts to circle around Riku. "But know that the truth will bring you pain. Here, in sleep, you'll be safe… blanketed in the comforting embrace of slumber for all eternity."

And doesn't that sound like a boring kind of fate, Riku thinks. Staying here, staying asleep and letting the world go on around him as if he'd never existed at all… yeah no, that's not happening.

He's never been that kind of lazy bum.

So, he grabs the card to face whatever 'truth' the voice wants to lay out for him, smirking to himself: "This seemed like a boring place to take a nap anyway."

In his ear, the voice laughs hauntingly familiar as the card in his hand starts to shine brightly. When he dares to open his eyes, he finds himself in a bright white hallway that he's never seen before.

Riku takes a deep breath before he steps forward and up to only door of the room, holding up the card.

It's time to face this so-called truth.

* * *

Hollow Bastion is the same as Riku remembers – a place long fallen and left abandoned to the Heartless and those who control them. The fact that he used to be among that number doesn't quite sit well with Riku, but there is little that he can do to change it.

Much as he'd love to change the past entirely, or forget that this ever happened; he knows what he's done only too well.

Each of the voice's taunts stings with precision, as though the voice knows exactly what's going on in his head, as though the voice had lived his last year too.

("But at least she gave you a nice room," it mocks, and even though Riku knows the comeback is pathetic at best, he hisses for it to shut up.)

So, Riku fights the Heartless around, the Soul Eater solid, dark presence in his hand as he uses it to slay every damn creature of Darkness around him.

(It used to hum in his hand, a well of power that he'd always relied on before… now he can't help but feel wary of that.)

It shouldn't be quite so surprising that he encounters Maleficent right in the chapel where he remembers her holding her meetings with Hook, Hades and the rest of her flunkies – even though she's dead, even though he's watched her die, powerless to stop his own hand from driving the Dark Keyblade into her to unleash her Darkness fully.

Riku still freezes at the sight of her.

She laughs at him, tempts him with the promise of power and taunts that he already belongs to the Darkness (he doesn't, not any longer), so Riku draws the Soul Eater and slays her once more.

She is, after all, just a memory, just a figment, just an illusion made up from his memories by this place.

She has no truth to offer.

(Yet, wasn't she the only one who _cared_ , the Darkness whispers. Wasn't she the one who understood his loneliness–

No. She'd used him, just like he had used – or at least tried to use – her for his own ends.)

He exits the memory, when the voice speaks up again: "Why do you shun the Darkness?"

He is ready for it now, firing back a dry reply, because he knows exactly who is talking to him now, knows exactly just who is trying to tempt him back into the Darkness he's discarded already.

And indeed, the voice's owner appears before him, Darkness rising and forming into the figure that Riku would rather have forgotten, but knows only too well.

Of course, it's Ansem – the one who had him reach far, far, further into the Darkness for power when he had lost to Sora the first time. The one who had made him his puppet then, who'd make him his puppet now, if Riku gives him even the slightest chance to do so.

"Clever boy," Ansem praises when he says as much. "I knew you'd be the one to most appropriately serve me. And now, surrender to me again–"

"You're insane!" Riku shouts, hand curling around the forming grip of the Soul Eater before he rushes at the Heartless, because really there is– "Not a chance!"

He won't give in to Ansem. He won't ever endanger anyone like that again.

Ansem counters his attack with ease, and the backlash of energy is enough to throw Riku on his back and leave him stunned through Ansem's monologue of mocking and tempting.

And indeed, how easy would it be to reach into the Darkness, for all the strength that Riku knows it to have. How easy would it be to claim that strength and–

No, he's tried that before and it ended with his enslavement to Ansem; Riku will never bow to him again.

This is not the strength that he needs.

Still, he can't do anything; he's not strong enough.

He wasn't even strong enough to lay even one blow on that whirlwind of Heartless in the Realm of Darkness. He has no chance against Ansem as he is right now, and that realization is downright terrifying.

So maybe, there really is no choice but to give into the–

"You're wrong!" another familiar voice speaks up and Riku looks up just in time to see two orbs of light – one yellow, one blue – descend from the ceiling.

"Fight, Riku." Aqua's voice encourages, and when Riku closes his eyes for a second, he can almost feel her presence, the sensation of phantom fingers ghosting over his shoulders in support. "I know you are stronger than the Darkness… you just have to believe in the Light."

"That's right," the King adds. "The Light will never give up on you. You'll always find it, even in the deepest Darkness."

Both lights settle in his chest, and Riku feels his earlier panic recede as he picks himself up and readies himself for battle. Even here facing Ansem, he isn't alone. He still has his friends, and somewhere out there are Aqua and the King.

He won't lose to the Darkness, not today.

* * *

Aqua freezes where she stands, colour drained from her cheeks in face of Riku's disappearance and then her head whips around as her eyes search for Mickey – for a second, she is just so utterly terrified that he and Riku are just phantoms as well, that the Darkness has been playing tricks on her this whole–

Mickey reaches over to her, warmth radiating through his gloves against the skin of her arm (he is real, he's really here with her), reassuring her: "I don't think we need to worry overly much; Riku is a tough kid. If you reach out with your Heart, you'll still be able to sense him."

And indeed, she can sense the tainted mess of Riku's Heart, his bright light twined with slick, deep Darkness that leaves her shivering.

He feels close and yet almost worlds away. It's a strange sensation.

But wherever he is, his presence feels steady. Mickey is right… at whatever place he's found himself now, he is probably okay.

She takes a deep breath to find a calm state of mind again; she won't be able to do anything to help Riku or Mickey if panic keeps her frozen like this. Then she straightens, lips pressing together before she asks: "Do you have any idea what happened just now?"

Mickey shakes his head, but there's a hopeful look in his eyes. "Not for certain… but I think, Riku has somehow been drawn out of this Realm. Maybe if we follow him, we'll find our way out of here too!"

She nods curtly, determined. "Then let's try to find him."

They follow the white path for a while and every now and then, Aqua thinks she can hear Riku's voice yelling at someone from afar – it's hard to make out the words, but his agitation resonates in the tone of his voice and it's more than enough to set Aqua on edge as well.

Then, suddenly a deep, familiar voice sounds through the Darkness, so loud that even Aqua can hear it: "Why do you shun the Darkness?"

She freezes, hands clenching – she knows this voice too well, familiar-unfamiliar from Terra's mouth before she had fought him on the Central Square of Radiant Garden ("Terra's Heart has been extinguished… smothered by the Darkness within him!"), then later when Terra had talked to her here in the Dark World.

 _Xehanort_.

To think that the same man that was plaguing Terra would now also haunt Riku… it shouldn't be surprising really, Aqua thinks, as she listens to the conversation playing out afar, the taunts spoken by Xehanort – whom Riku calls Ansem for some reason – and just listening to him declare the Darkness the only way for Riku to gain strength makes her sick to her stomach.

She looks down at Mickey, who appears to be just as unwilling to let the boy face this trial alone, nodding as they will themselves through the veil between the realms that keeps them separate, closer to Riku's location.

She can see the boy before her mind's eye, exhausted and yet ready to fight for his life and Heart – she won't let Xehanort have him, won't let him take Riku the way he took Terra – and beyond him she can see Xehanort-in-Terra's-body just like she had seen him in the Realm of Darkness.

"Fight, Riku," she whispers, settling her hands on the boy's shoulders and wishes she were right with him, able to do more than to offer the faint comfort of a small spell that will only be able to boost his spirit and confidence, that might give him an edge, but nothing more in the battle that lies before him.

"I know you are stronger than the Darkness," she continues. "You just have to believe in the Light."

Mickey speaks his own encouragements, assuring Riku that he isn't alone and true enough – even if they aren't here with him yet, they'll be sure to keep him close in their thoughts.

"I won't lose to Darkness. Not today," echoes Riku's voice through the Darkness… and with that they lose the connection again, forced to rely on the sense of Riku's Heart to get any idea of his state.

Aqua forces herself to relax a little, in spite of how much the knowledge that they can't help the boy properly grates on her. There is little she, they, can do right now… at least until they find the crossing to the Realm of Light. Given the short contact they managed to forge with Riku, it has to be close.

Still…

"Mickey…" she says slowly, frowning down at her friend. "That voice… the person that Riku is fighting… do you know who he is?"

The mouse king nods: "That's the Heartless of a guy that calls himself Ansem – he possessed Riku and that's how he ended in the Realm of Darkness in first place."

And that finally answers that question at least, even though Aqua can feel her gut twisting at the word 'possessed'. She was already utterly certain about his identity… still, she lets Mickey continue.

"He's not the true Ansem – not Radiant Garden's ruler Ansem, the Wise; he's a friend of mine – but an apprentice that stole his name and then plunged that world into Darkness. I met him only once… He was a tall fellow with grey hair… but for the life of me, I can't remember his true name."

"Xehanort…" she whispers, lips pressing together as she thinks back to that moment when she had chosen to save Terra, to give him another chance… "It must have been Xehanort."

Mickey, unaware of her realization, brightens and snaps his fingers: "Indeed, that was it!"

Aqua stops abruptly, cold shivers of realization running down her back as her legs give out beneath her and she sinks to her knees. Her mouth is dry and tongue heavy as she asks: "And he is responsible for the fall of the worlds… isn't he?"

(It can't be, it _can't_ be…)

Meanwhile, Mickey has kept walking, his tone more serious than before while he confirms: "Yeah… Well, he's been using Maleficent to do it, but from what I could find out, he was the person that pulled her strings all a–"

He cuts himself off when he notices that Aqua hasn't followed him, turning and making his way back to her as concern flickers open over his face: "Aqua… is everything all right?"

Aqua swallows heavily, her eyes drifting away as she reaches for the Wayfinder, finding comfort in the way the hard edges of the charm bite into the skin of her palm as she clutches it tightly.

"It's my fault," she whispers… then repeats herself a little louder even as Mickey's eyes widen with alarm. "It's my fault that Xehanort was set loose on the Worlds. If I hadn't sent him back; if I had only–"

But Mickey shakes his head sharply and takes another step towards her, his warm hands settling comforting on the one that is clenched around her Wayfinder.

"I have no idea why you would think that, but I'm sure it's not true… and even if it were, I sincerely doubt that you set out for it to happen."

Aqua just shakes her head, shivering faintly. She can't quite find it in her to meet Mickey's eyes as she admits: "It was Terra… after I hid Ven, I found him in Radiant Garden. Xehanort had taken over his body. We fought… and I think there was a struggle between Terra and Xehanort for control. I thought Terra had won it, but then he fell into the Darkness… and I dove after him."

She remembers the moment so clearly, the realization that they'd both be lost in the Darkness… that one of them would have to remain behind.

Back then, the decision had seemed so easy.

"I knew that we couldn't make it… and I thought that Terra needed to make his way back into the Realm of Light, that he needed a second chance… to be better. To become the Keyblade Master I _knew_ he could be."

She bites at her lips, anger and bitterness, despair swelling up in her.

"I was wrong. Instead of saving Terra, I unleashed an unspeakable evil… and caused the Worlds to fall."

She lets those words linger, eyes closed as silent tears run down her cheek… but then a warm hand touches her cheek and her tears get soaked into Mickey's gloves.

"Xehanort…" he says. "He's that friend of Master Yen Sid's that went bad… that you fought in the Keyblade Graveyard… wasn't he?"

When she nods, he continues: "Master Yen Sid only told me that it was his former friend that had caused all that, but never his name, and I didn't press. Maybe if I had asked, if I had made him tell me… maybe then I would have made the connection to the Xehanort I met in Radiant Garden. So, you see… you aren't the only one to blame."

Aqua's eyes snap open at that, a counter forming on her tongue: "But–"

He shakes his head before she is able to properly voice her protests. "Ansem, the Wise told me that when Xehanort arrived, he lacked every last memory of his life before turning up in Radiant Garden. Doing the things he did… causing the worlds to fall… that was his decision. Maybe, if you had left him in the Realm of Darkness it wouldn't have happened… or maybe the Darkness that swept over the Worlds would have been even worse!"

The tight knot in Aqua's chest unfurls slightly at those words, even if she can't help but still feel responsible.

"Either way, the worlds are restored now." Mickey says, squeezing her hands gently. "Whatever Xehanort's plan was… he hasn't succeeded yet."

Finally, Aqua manages to loosen the hold on her Wayfinder, to force her body to relax under Mickey's hands, then rises back to her feet. Xehanort hasn't succeeded, that much must be true… especially if Terra's warning about him looking for Ven is indeed the truth.

If he needs Ven for something… then Aqua has to make her way back to protect him.

"Well…" she says. "Right now, his plan seems to be to take control of Riku."

And needless to say…

"We can't let that happen."

Mickey takes a step back, smiling as he nods: "All right, then! Let's go find our way to Riku and back him up!"

* * *

In a world in the Realm Between, in a castle filled with brightly white walls, many floors above the eleventh basement where Riku makes his way through his memory of Neverland, sits a girl in a white room.

She had sensed Riku's arrival, the same way she had sensed when Sora had set his first steps into this castle… the place of her birth.

He struggles, she knows, regrets so heavy at the forefront of his mind as he desperately searches for his true friends…

It wouldn't take much to put him under her spell, to tug at the chains of his memories… just the same way she is already rearranging Sora's at Marluxia's command.

(She aches for them both, the place where her Heart should be empty and yearning… because she remembers those days when all three of them, the two of them and her true self had been together playing at the beach.

But Naminé knows… she's just the shade of Kairi, just a Nobody… and a Nobody has no right to yearn for anything, she least of all.)

Still, even though she has no order to do so, she can't help but ghost along Riku's memories a little and bask at brightness of his connection to Sora and Kairi – a bond that no Darkness will ever be able to blacken or drown, not truly, she thinks.

Not even that of the shadow hiding still in the depth of Riku's Heart.

(There are other chains forming, still faint and budding… one that she recognizes to be Donald and Goofy's King… but the other is the one that's truly curious, a person that not even Naminé recognizes, but that she knows has to be important.)

She doesn't look up when Larxene saunters into her room, yet can't help but flinch when the other woman's hands settle on her shoulders and starts to play with the pale blonde strands of her hair. It's not an especially tight grip… but not one that Naminé can break.

The hold of the Organization XIII is absolute… and much as she wants to escape, much as she wishes for the rescue that she knows that she doesn't deserve… she knows better than to fight.

"I'm on my way to meet your hero, little witch," Larxene says, a smile playing at her lips. "And when I'm done with him, he'll be sure to remember your name for all eternity."

Naminé pulls her crayon away from the picture she is drawing, shoulders tight as she bites at her lip. "You won't hurt him… will you?"

Larxene's laughter is a hollow sound that echoes through the room. "Of course, I won't… no more than he can handle anyway. Don't worry."

She pulls her hands away, then pats Naminé's head before drawing away, ready to leave. "Just keep doing what we tell you to do… unravel Sora's memories until the only thing he concerns himself with is you."

Naminé nods mutely, eyes pressed shut as she thinks about days on those Islands gone past – memories that were, and memories that she wishes had been. For a moment she thinks about Sora on the sixth floor and about Riku in the eleventh basement… and about how Larxene and Marluxia don't yet know of latter just yet…

For just a second, she thinks about telling Larxene, but then she presses her lips together – she knows exactly what she has to do to Sora after all.

If she does the same to Riku… there won't be anyone left who'll be able to save her.

\- _To Be Continued_ -

TLDR, Yen Sid is the Dumbledore of Kingdom Hearts. You cannot convince me otherwise.

Feel free to hit me up on tumblr (iceboundary) in the next month while I die trying to write more of this story; I'll probably give an update of my progress every other day!

Also, please consider leaving a review! :3


	3. Act 01 – Chapter 02

So, I know I said I wouldn't post again until December, but well… today is my Birthday and between that and the fact that I'm really not going to catch up on the NaNo wordcount anymore, I figured it's fine to post the next chapter? (Also, have I ever mentioned my lack of self control? Yeah, here it is… |D)

Anyway, this chapter is more a set-up than anything else – the real fun begins next chapter! :333

Please, enjoy! ;D

 **\- Beyond The Long Darkness -**

 **\- Act 01 – Chapter 02 -**

Riku isn't sure how much time has passed since his arrival in this castle, how many hours or days he's spend on racing through the world-rooms created by his memory, upstairs from one white hallway to the next.

They almost seem to blend together at this point; Riku at least isn't quite certain if he really is making progress at this point, if he is actually moving forward even though every encounter with the agents of the Darkness that he has seems to indicate that he does.

His teeth grind together at the thought of his battles with that strange man, Vexen, and the replica of himself and the things they've said…

"You're afraid of the dark!" the Replica had noted, voice dripping with distain and arrogance. "The darkness inside you still frightens you, no matter what you say." – and Riku still feels his hackles rise just at the thought of that fake judging him, talking as though he has _any idea_ what the Darkness does, the danger lurking in it. Riku knows better than to use that 'gift' of Ansem's… he knows better than to reach too deeply into the Darkness, to give in so totally the way he had in Hollow Bastion.

(So, maybe he _is_ afraid… but being afraid of this real threat of losing his body and freedom of will to Ansem once more… it's not like that's actually unreasonable, right?

It's not really fear… it's just reasonable wariness.)

The stink of Darkness clings to him regardless of how much he does or doesn't use it… and that's as much his own fault as it is Ansem's… it's his own stupidity that had led him where he is now.

At least, he thinks as he slays his way through the Heartless in the memory of Wonderland, he isn't entirely alone – even if he still has so far only met enemies in this place. Aqua and the King had assured him, had appeared to him as illusions when he had reached the eleventh basement and their presence had been soothing then, that moment when Riku's doubts had felt so utterly overwhelming.

"I've already lost one friend to the Darkness," Aqua had said then, her transparent palm ghosting over his cheek. "He lost himself to his Darkness… was driven into it by someone that was only too eager to take advantage of his grief and rage."

For some reason Riku had somehow thought of that one visitor to the Islands… the stranger that had promised him the Keyblade. He has no idea if Aqua even knew that person, who she is talking about truly… but there is that pang in his Heart again that makes him certain of a connection between those two.

"So please," Aqua had continued, unaware of his thoughts, "Keep fighting the Darkness. The person you know as Ansem… he's already cost us too much. You cannot let him win."

Between that and Mickey's request, and the strength that both of them are lending him to fight off the Heartless… how can he do anything but keep fighting the Darkness and its envoys head on?

The Trickmaster offers little challenge in that regard at least – honestly, Riku doesn't even know why he's encountering it in Wonderland and why he has this card in first place… he's never even seen that world, only heard whispers of its existence in Hollow Bastion.

It was his last card left though… so Riku can't help but wonder who he'll encounter now that he's about to reach the exit hall of the fourth basement level, if he'll finally find that Fake again.

He's promised to catch up with that guy and wipe the floor with him, after all.

Braced for another encounter, Riku pushes open the white doors that should lead out of the memory and into another white hall. And indeed, a large man dressed in the same black coat as Vexen had been blocks his way further upstairs.

Riku's nose twitches as he takes in the smell of his Darkness, the faint note of something in-between, something missing…

"That scent…" he starts, "You're another of those 'Nobodies'."

"You've done well thus far," the Nobody says, and Riku can feel the weight of his gaze lingering on him, "But to possess your powers, and yet fear Darkness… What a waste."

Defensive anger sparks in Riku's chest – he's not afraid, he _isn't_! – so, he hisses: "I do not… fear it!"

The Nobody is unimpressed by his denial, his reply calm: "I sense that you do."

And Riku doesn't even know how he presumes to know that, how he can sense anything going on in his head, but the Nobody continues before he can retort: "You're also capable of controlling the Darkness. Cast away your useless fear. Open your Heart. Embrace the Darkness."

"And if I say no?" says Riku sharply, defiant. He has no intention to do anything this Nobody tells him.

"Then you lose both Light and Darkness – and disappear!" the Nobody snarls, and from one second to the next Riku finds himself fighting against the pressure of the sheer power the Nobody releases, red and black energy swirling around the Nobody as he continues: "I, Lexaeus, will not yield to the frail Heart of an infantile coward! Now, stop resisting – and let the Darkness in!"

There is no time to think after that; Riku throws himself to the side in order to dodge the large weapon that Lexaeus tries to bring down on his head.

The large man is surprisingly fast for his size, but Riku is faster and he knows that that's the only thing that's keeping him alive in this fight right now – the way he's slowly cutting away at the Nobody's health.

Beneath his skin he can feel the pulse of Darkness humming, tempting him to reach into the power that Ansem had given him, that would make him faster and stronger, that would make it so much easier to prevail in this fight… he pushes the thought away.

No matter how tempting it is to take the easy way out of this fight, he's made a promise to Aqua and the King.

He'll keep fighting the Darkness, no matter what form it takes.

It's a brutal fight – Riku needs to keep moving, because he knows any mistake will cost him dearly. The few times that Lexaeus' weapon had grazed him had each felt like being hit by a brick and even with Mickey's and Aqua's magic to back him up and restore his health just a little… he can't risk taking the full force of the blows that the Nobody keeps dishing out.

Lexaeus is slowly faltering under the hundreds of hits that Riku has unleashed at him though, so Riku is confident in his ability to win this fight. He takes a deep breath when he sees the Nobody gasp for air before him; now is his chance: "You're finished!"

He runs up to the Nobody, jumping to get in a strike at his head; but Lexaeus' counter is faster, he's shouting enraged: "Don't mock me!"

Riku can see his weapon moving but there is nothing he can do to dodge, certainly not while he is mid-jump – and he can feel the air being pressed out of his lungs by the full strength of Lexaeus' hit as he is pushed upwards and hits the ceiling, then falls down to the ground.

He can feel his eyelids flickering as a haze of pain settles over him; his whole body burns and he can't even twitch as he senses Lexaeus slowly closing in on him. The Nobody's voice seems far away, but Riku can still hear him say: "You were too much trouble."

It doesn't take much of any imagination to know what _that's_ supposed to mean.

'I don't want to die,' Riku thinks and he doesn't. Not before he sees Sora and Kairi again. Not before he is able to apologize.

The Darkness under his skin hums again…

And then– Nothing.

 _[The deep reds of the sunset dazzles in the ocean's waters…_

 _Far above, the seagulls are circling, singing in concert with the sound of the waves rolling into the beach…_

 _He's standing by the shore, staring at the horizon…_

 _"A long time ago… there was someone, who left this world."_

 _From afar, he hears the echo…_

 _"This world is just too small."]_

* * *

Admittedly, there is little that Aqua actually knows about the Dark World – Master Eraqus had taught her nothing of it beyond the fact of its existence and the stern warning that nothing was more dangerous than for a Keybearer to be trapped in Darkness, nothing more difficult than to fight their way back into the Realm of Light.

The years that have passed have proven those warnings true.

Master Eraqus never said anything about the way the Darkness seeps into the cracks of one's Heart, something bitter in her whispers, about how it exploits any weakness no matter how small.

Aqua is so tired…

Mickey's quiet company is a blessing still, even though the guilt of her earlier realization still weighs heavily, the knowledge that the state of the worlds now is – no matter her intentions – her fault as well…

But then… how could she have chosen _not_ to safe Terra… how can she choose between her friend and her duty to the worlds…

(She's a failure as a Keyblade Master, the Darkness in her Heart whispers.)

Aqua shakes her head sharply – it won't do to let thoughts like that linger, especially while Mickey is here with her and Riku somewhere out there in need of their help.

"Something smells… funny…," a whisper drifts from afar – it's Riku's voice, Aqua realizes.

"The realms must be drifting closer," Mickey says, eyes wide as he looks up at her. "Riku seems to have won against Xehanort… let's try to contact him again."

She nods, then closes her eyes and pictures the boy, one of her hands falling into her skirt and pulling out the Wayfinder. The Light, the connection to her friends, the faint bond that she now shares with the boy… it all will lead her to him.

"The Darkness even seeped into my skin…" Riku's image in the Darkness whispers dejectedly while staring at his hand almost as though it might gain life of its own and try to strangle him.

Mickey attempts to sooth him: "Don't worry, Riku."

The boy looks up then, eyes wide with relief as he sees the both of them… but then a frown tugs at his lips: "What happened? I can see right through the both of you."

"Well, we are not really here yet." Aqua explains, gently smiling. "The realms have drifted close, so Mickey and I can both send you only a little of our power and talk to you through our Hearts."

Mickey nods: "There's no telling when there'll be another opportunity, so we need you to listen to our request for you."

Riku's head tilts slightly in confusion. "A request?"

"Yes," Aqua says, her hand clenching around her Wayfinder. "The hold that the Darkness has on you… you have to fight it; even if it isn't easy. I've already lost one friend to the Darkness."

She thinks about Terra and his own struggle, how he had edged closer and closer to the Darkness between the times that she had seen him during their journey. How Xehanort had used him… first to fight their Master, and then her.

"He lost himself to his Darkness… was driven into it by someone that was only too eager to take advantage of his grief and rage."

She reaches out with her free hand, tracing over Riku's cheekbone with the tips of her fingers. "So please… keep fighting the Darkness. The person you know as Ansem… he's already cost us too much. You cannot let him win."

Something grim flickers over Mickey's expression, but Aqua can't quite tell what exactly he is thinking of, but then he smiles again to encourage Riku: "Even in the deepest Darkness, there's always a little bit of Light… that's what Kingdom Hearts showed us, isn't it? Whenever you feel lost, it'll show you the way… I'm sure of it!"

Riku takes a deep breath, first looks at the King then up to Aqua and nods. "All right… I'll do my best!"

Mickey holds out his hand and Aqua lays hers over his, but as Riku attempts to do the same to seal their pact, his hand passes through theirs – and for a second, she can see the way disappointment flashes in his eyes. "You are just illusions…"

The sight of him breaks her Heart – it reminds her too much of her own disappointment when first encountering the Phantom of Terra in the fallen Castle of Dreams.

"Don't worry," Mickey repeats. "We shook hands in our Hearts. The three of us? We are connected now."

"I know you are lonely," Aqua says then, shaking her head sharply before Riku can even think to deny it. She knows the look of it only too well, had seen it in her own eyes… in the mirrors of Dwarf's Woodlands and in the eyes of her own Phantom. "But, no matter how bad it gets… don't reach into the Darkness. Instead, call for us in your Heart and remember that we are close. We'll find you no matter what."

Riku's hand clenches over his Heart, hope and gratefulness flashing over his face: "…Thank you."

And with that, the connection breaks.

Aqua sighs faintly as she opens her eyes again. The faint sensation of Riku's presence still lingers, but wherever the boy is now he's on his own again… and with Xehanort threatening to take over his body, there is no time for Aqua to doubt herself.

Especially not when suddenly the Heartless are appearing in her and Mickey's way, dark shadows flitting over the white ground around them.

They make short work of them – after the rounds they've gone with the Demon Tide, a group of Shadows and Flutterings is not even close to enough to stop them on their way out of this Realm – Master Keeper and Mickey's Keyblade of Darkness cutting cleanly through each and every Heartless until the two of them are left alone again.

Mickey hums under his breath as he dismisses his Keyblade again, head tilting. "I wonder… this is the first time the Heartless have attacked us since we closed the Door. We may just be getting closer to the exit."

"I hope it's just that," Aqua notes. "If there's one thing I've learned in my time here, it's that in this Realm any respite is just the calm before the storm."

Her companion nods, his round ears twitching as though he is trying to make out any distinctive noise around them. Finally, Mickey just shrugs: "Well, if there is anything waiting for us up ahead, then we might as well confront it. Between the two of us, I have no doubt we'll be victorious."

"I just hope you are right," Aqua says, then shakes her head sharply.

Pessimism won't do them or Riku any good.

They continue their way down the long path, but Aqua can't help but feel a little wary of the shadows around them now… something is lurking there. But then… here, in this Realm there is always something lurking, some cowardly Heartless waiting for the faintest sign of weakness to strike at.

Afar, Riku's presence is a steady reminder to keep going – she can feel the light tug on her magic that indicates that the boy is relying on their bond to fight, and that thought is really a relief.

The promise they made… Riku is keeping his part.

Then, from one second to the next, his presence changes – the Darkness, Xehanort's Darkness spikes overwhelmingly… it's a foul presence that Aqua is only to familiar with.

"Something must have happened to Riku!" Mickey says, his tail swishing with agitation and Aqua's hands clench, the air ringing as Master Keeper appears.

Xehanort… he's taken enough already.

"I won't let you have him!" she shouts, and points her Keyblade into the Darkness, eyes closing again. Before her mind's eye, she sees them – Xehanort in Terra's body and Riku trying to escape his touch.

"Back off!" Aqua hisses, as light springs from the tip of her Keyblade, vicious satisfaction settling in her gut when she senses Xehanort recoil, from it and from Riku.

"Meddlesome wench!" his curse echoes, even into the Realm of Darkness, but before Aqua can turn and speak any words of comfort to Riku, she feels the Realms drift.

She sighs and lets go of her Keyblade. "That should keep Xehanort at bay for a little while… but he is growing stronger."

Mickey nods. "Then, we should hurry. I'm sure the exit to this Realm is near."

Aqua looks ahead, where the path seems to curl in on itself into a clearing, then reaches for her Wayfinder – Terra is lost and Ven is asleep… and Riku is fighting against Xehanort.

"Wait for us," she whispers. "We are almost there."

* * *

Naminé sits on the floor of the thirteenth level's entrance hall, arms drawn around her knees as she watches the door that leads into the room where Sora, Donald and Goofy are fighting Maluxia.

She closes her eyes and presses her lips together, unwilling to let the words, the prayer on her tongue spill forth.

(They are old words that Kairi had been taught… a faint memory of prayers from her Grandmother, and much more clear ones of the words of worship to the Island Gods that her adoptive father had taught her.

She has no right to either.)

Naminé knows that she can't feel anxiety, not really… but she knows what exactly will happen if Marluxia wins this battle, what she'll be made to do.

What Marluxia will force her to make of Sora…

"Don't worry," Riku– no, Riku's Replica says.

He seems to pick up on her unease even without looking at her; his gaze is fixed upon that door as well, his body tense and ready to jump forward into a fight to protect her… like he has promised to.

"Sora… he and I, we both promised to protect you. Even if Sora is defeated… I won't let Marluxia lay a finger on you."

The empty space where her Heart should be throbs at those words, and if she could really feel emotion… Naminé knows she would be feeling regret right now.

"I know," she says. The memories she's crafted and forced upon Sora and the Replica… the promise that was never made by either of them… it doesn't leave them any other choice but to care for her.

To protect her.

"I'm so sorry," she continues after a moment, fiddling with her fingers. "If not for the memories I gave you…"

"It doesn't matter," he retorts decisively, but without meeting her eyes. "I'm an imitation anyway… a fake. Having fake memories… it doesn't change anything. It's fitting, really."

But it does matter, to him in the very least, Naminé knows, even if he denies it.

Fake as it might be, cobbled together from memories that she had created and data taken from Sora and the real Riku… he does have a Heart to care with, very much unlike her.

She can sense it just by tracing along the chain of memories she wrapped around him… he feels things just as deeply as the boy that he was based on.

In that, Riku and the Replica are exactly the same.

Naminé looks up, pushing to her feet seconds before the doors open and relief washes over her even before Sora, Donald and Goofy emerge – the presence of Marluxia collapses in on itself and disappears.

The person – not really a person, because no Nobody will ever be a _Somebody_ after all – who had sanctioned all of Larxene's torment, who had held her captive here since the day of her birth in this Castle… he's no more.

Sora locks the floor with the Keyblade, then turns around to consider the Replica: "You okay, Riku?"

"Not Riku," the Replica snaps, then adds just a little gentler: "I'm a fake. I can't remember why I was created or when… All that's inside of me is time with you and Naminé. But I know those memories are not real."

He sounds bitter… and why shouldn't he feel that way? Who wouldn't be bitter about finding out that all that one remembers is nothing more than a witch's make-believe?

"Gee, Naminé…" says Goofy, "Can't you use your magic to put Riku's memory back to normal?"

"Well, I–" Naminé starts, not sure what to say… because unlike with Sora, there was just so little to the Replica of Riku… he had so little memories, so very few experiences when Vexen and Larxene had brought him before her and forced her to fill him up.

The truth is… that the Replica just might break, if she were to take those memories away again. And maybe he even knows that much because before she can actually make any offers or excuses, the Replica shakes his head and says: "It's all right. I'll deal."

He doesn't look at Naminé or Sora… and just that alone speaks volumes, Naminé thinks and says nothing as the Replica moves to walk away. She has no right to ask anything of him.

"Wait!" Sora is not nearly as content to leave things be. "Who cares if someone created you? You are you and nobody else. You have your own Heart inside you. Those feelings and memories are yours and yours alone. They're special!"

The Replica looks back, a sad glint in his eyes: "Sora, you're a good guy. I don't have to be real to see how real your feelings are. That's good enough."

(Is it truly? Are his feelings – truer than anything that she might 'feel' – really any different to Sora's, when she's manipulated them both, when she has used the same chain of memories to put them under her spell?)

Then, the Replica turns away and leaves… and Naminé can't help but wonder if she'll ever see him again.

(Does she deserve to, after everything she's done? Probably not…)

Sora calls after him, but it's really only half-hearted by his standards. If this was the real Riku… he'd probably give chase regardless of what he was being told, she thinks.

He's still torn about it, she knows, but before he can change his mind Donald has already turned to her and changed the topic to their lost memories.

His question is one she can answer with a faint smile, because their memory is different to the Replica's – she has only shifted a few links of Donald's and Goofy's anyway and Sora's… well… that, she has messed up quite a bit more, but his bonds to his friends – to Donald and Goofy, to Riku and Kairi, to everyone he has met thanks to his journey so far, really – are too strong to be broken… even if the memories of them are gone.

("My friends are my power," Sora had said once, she knows, and it is so very true; maybe more so than Sora will ever know.)

"It's my turn to look after you," she finishes her explanation and it is – Sora has come for her, has protected her even after finding the truth of what she's done to him…

Sora agrees readily, assuring her that they trust her to return their memories, but then Jiminy realizes the truth that Naminé tries not to think too much about.

"You won't be able to remember anything about what happened here," she admits then, because well… there is no point in hiding it now.

In her chest, she feels something flutter when Sora asks dismayed: "Not even you?"

She bites her lower lip for a second then apologizes: "I'm sorry. It's the only way, I'm afraid."

And for a second she thinks, maybe… maybe if she gives him the chance, maybe Sora will choose her over Kairi… maybe he'll choose her and the fake memories she's given him, maybe he'll stay here with her…

(Maybe she'll never be lonely again.)

He decides: "Make me like I was." – and Naminé feels the fragile hope she had held for just a few seconds crumble, but she understands him, understands his choice.

"Nobody needs to keep a bunch of memories that aren't real, right?" she notes softly, and she just hopes that Sora doesn't pick up on the tears prickling at the corners of her eyes. "You want to remember all of the people who are really important to you. Anyone would choose that."

She turns away to lead them all into one of the laboratories left behind by the Organization's experiments, wiping her fingers over her eyes, hoping that none of the others notice the motion. The pods… the Replica had slept in one of them when she had changed his memories, so Naminé knows a little about how to operate them.

They will be safe for Sora, Donald and Goofy to sleep in while she fixes their memories.

Donald and Goofy inspect their pods, both uneasy about just going to sleep and forgetting all about her… but Jiminy promises to make a note before sleeping himself – to thank her.

Then Donald and Goofy climb into their pods, leaving just her and Sora.

She watches him climb into his pod and thinks of all the times that Kairi caught him sleeping on the beach… he'll be just peaceful in his pod, she's sure.

She'll make sure of it.

Her chest aches again with what might be bitter-sweet regret, would surely be if she actually had a Heart to feel with. Still, even if Sora won't remember her saying so…

"All of this may have started with a lie… but I really am glad that I got to meet you."

He nods, smiles at her so easily that it hurts. "Yeah, me too. When I finally found you, and even when I remembered your name, I was happy. The way I felt then… that was no lie."

It's so sweet to hear him say that, even though she knows better than to believe it's true. Remembering her, finding her in the memory of Destiny Islands… that was all part of Marluxia's trap for him.

Still, she can pretend, for just this second at least.

"Goodbye," she says softly; because they'll never meet again, not like this at least.

But Sora shakes his head. "No, not goodbye! When I wake up, I'll find you. And then there will be no lies. We're gonna be friends for real. Promise me, Naminé!"

That he would want to make her such a promise, when all she has done is hurt him and make him forget, when she is just a witch and a shadow… and anyway…

"You're going to forget making that promise."

So, really… she shouldn't dare to feel even the faintest flicker of hopefulness. He'll forget and she'll eventually disappear, she is certain… and there is really nobody to blame for that but herself.

She shouldn't exist in first place, after all.

But Sora… Sora is wise in his own way, so kind… kinder than Naminé deserves. "If the chain of memories comes apart, the links will still there, right? So, the memory of our promise will always be inside me somewhere. I'm sure of it!"

She can't help but smile at him, can't deny him anything when he's so certain of himself.

"It's a promise."

His pinky finger joins easily with hers, the warmth of his fingers so comforting… and then he pulls away and jumps into the pod, slowly falling into slumber.

Naminé sighs as she traces the chains of his memories and slowly guides Sora into deeper sleep, reminds him about the promise that he had made just days before he had arrived in Castle Oblivion.

The promise to the person that is truly important to him.

She is already working on untangling the first of the fake memories she's given him when she senses a battle in the lower floors of the castle, the air tinged with magic that she only knows in passing.

Zexion's illusions… and trapped inside of them is the real Riku.

She had pushed the thought of him away from the forefront of her mind when it had become clear that Marluxia either didn't know or care about his presence in the castle and had put her faith in his ability to take care of himself, and in those new bonds she had sensed him forming that she had been certain would help him prevail.

In Kairi's memory, Riku was always the most independent of the Island's children, the one who would take the lead, who had been trusted with more responsibilities than any of them and maybe that's part of what drove him so strongly to find a way to escape his home, she thinks.

But he is vulnerable now, hurt and unbalanced by the things that have happened to him since leaving the Islands, so whatever Zexion is showing him is probably getting to him.

Naminé looks up at Sora's sleeping face, and thinks of the gleaming bond between him and Riku, about three children sleeping in the Island's sands and a raft that never set sail.

She thinks about the promise she just made… to take care of Sora… and why shouldn't she extend that to Riku too?

For just once… she wants to be the one protecting them.

Kairi would like this too, she thinks, to be the one to protect Sora and Riku for a change.

So, that's exactly what she'll do.

* * *

"And then there were two," Axel laughs to himself as he senses the fall of Marluxia at Sora's hands, a satisfied smirk tugging at his lips as he strolls down the hallway of the twelfth floor. The traitors – amateurs, both of them – are dead, and so are Vexen and Lexaeus… leaving only himself and Zexion.

For now, at least.

He's talked Zexion into eliminating Riku, the real one; and if that kid is anything like Sora… well, then he won't even have to lift a finger to take care of that little hiccup.

Still, it's always good to have a back-up plan, he thinks as he enters the memory of Sora's Islands and makes his way over the sandy beach, ignoring the Heartless around – the feeling is very mutual; he doesn't have anything they want anymore after all.

His arms cross when he finds his target, leaning back against one of the sturdy palm trees to watch as Riku's Replica throws himself at horde upon horde of nasty little Heartless, heedless of the injuries he's suffering or the company he's just obtained.

"You know…" he starts after a couple of minutes of watching the kid, "I kinda get the need to vent frustration, but really… is there even a point to this? Your weapon ain't a Keyblade after all."

And Heartless that are destroyed by anything but a Keyblade just reform elsewhere… which is why Xemnas had insisted on keeping the Organization mostly dormant in the last nine years or so, to await the emergence of the Keyblade Master.

Or, that's the company line anyway.

The replica grunts and slashes at the Dark Ball rising in front of him, hissing. "I _know_."

"It's not a Keyblade," he pushes out between clenched teeth, "and it's not the real thing either."

"Nothing about me is real," he continues, frustration rolling of him in waves… somehow he's a far cry from the proud little thing he'd been before Naminé had rewritten his memory. "Everything about me is _borrowed_."

Finally, he lowers his weapon and glares out at the horizon. "I want just one thing… one thing about me that's real and mine."

"Can't really help you with that," Axel shrugs, then hums faintly as though a thought had just occurred him. "But what if you just… took on the real thing? Defeat him and _you_ will be the one that's real. Nobody will worry about how you came to be, if there's just one of you."

The Replica tenses at that, clearly receptive to the idea, and Axel has to actively fight off the grin that tries to sneak onto his face. Hook, Line and Sinker have been swallowed… and well, if it turns out that his little precaution to recruit the Replica and use him to distract the remaining pieces on Castle Oblivion's little chess board is utterly unnecessary…

Well, it's not like he's made any promises to the Replica or anyone else here.

He knows exactly where his loyalties lie.

It's just a shame that he won't be able to see just how his distraction works out in full… he does have a date with this mystical Chamber of Waking, after all.

 _\- To Be Continued -_

Once more all my thanks to the Boyfriend, who beta-ed this chapter! I hope you look forward to the next piece of this story to go up around start of December (this time for sure)! If you want to see previews and comments on my progress or maybe want to chat about the story, come look me up on tumblr (iceboundary)!

Also, please consider leaving me a review, if you enjoyed the chapter! :3


	4. Act 01 – Chapter 03

Hello, and welcome to a new chapter of BtLD!

NaNo is over and I've reached about 15k new words over the month… so yea, I'll definitely need a lot of practice if I want to try again next year! |D;

Still, I'm one chapter short of finishing Act 01, so that's something! In any case, I'm excited about this chapter because finally things are starting to get moving!

Enjoy!

 **– Beyond The Long Darkness –**

 **– Act 01 – Chapter 03 –**

The clearing looks empty when they finally reach it, but Aqua knows better than to assume that means anything. The creatures of the Darkness will use every available shadow to lurk and hide in, to wait and strike at her and Mickey.

"Looks like we've hit a dead end," she says after looking over the areal for a moment. The white ground is even and spreads into a decent sized circle… a platform almost, but there is nothing here.

No way that leads anywhere at all.

"Strange…" Mickey comments, frowning. "Riku's presence has definitely been growing stronger, so I figured we'd find the e–"

He cuts himself off when suddenly a glimmer of sparkles rapidly descends from the Darkness above them and gathers into an orb of light in the center of the clearing.

It looks exactly like the one that had guided Riku out of this Realm.

Aqua turns her head to look down and catch Mickey's eyes, just by glancing at him she knows that he's had the same thought as her.

This is their way home, at last.

They've barely taken more than a few steps towards the orb, when Aqua feels the pinprick sensation of something watching her, senses the presence of a dark creature at her back. Mickey must have sensed the same, because they stop and turn in unison.

She isn't quite prepared for the sight before her.

At the entrance to the clearing three creatures have risen from the shadows, more humanoid than any Heartless that Aqua has ever encountered. Their yellow eyes, the deep red tips of their fingers… Aqua has seen many dark things in her time here, but never quite like this.

" _Light…_ " one of them rasps, and the voice of it sends shivers down her spine.

" _We'll take… the Light,_ " says another.

" _Gather the Light… make it ours… and then… make the path… to Kingdom Hearts._ " the third concludes, and really that's about enough, Aqua thinks as she and Mickey summon their Keyblades.

"We've got to defend that Light!" Mickey calls as he brings his Keyblade down at one of the swiftly shifting creatures; but Aqua is too distracted by its companion to reply – the swipe of its claws connects with Master Keeper and it takes all of her strength to keep it from pushing her backwards.

Meanwhile, the third of the dark creatures has snuck past both of them and is already reaching for the orb of light.

"As if I'd let you," shouts Aqua, flipping backwards to get out of the range of the first of the dark beings and aims her Keyblade at Number Three, snaring it with gleaming chains of Light. It screams with outrage as she yanks it backwards with Master Keeper, then unleashes a Barrier spell to envelope that orb of Light.

It ought to be safe for the time being.

A terrifying screech echoes over the clearing as the creature breaks her chains, then clenches its hands, lightning crackling at its fingertips just before it pushes its hands forward and unleashes compressed orbs of Thundaga spells.

Aqua barely manages to cartwheel to the side, the fine hairs on her arms rising when she feels the static of the lightning spell whizz past her.

She's never quite seen a Heartless use magic like this… it's almost as though–

Aqua shakes her head sharply and puts that sinking feeling in her stomach aside ( _later_ , she can speculate about what these things are later) and focuses on the battle before her.

Mickey is at her side just seconds later and they have more than enough experience on fighting together to mount a good defense of the orb… but there are three of those creatures and they fight as though they are aware of their advantage in numbers.

Even as the two of them push them back towards the edge of the clearing, one of the three Heartless always seems to slip through for a swipe or two at her barrier… it won't be long until it falls, Aqua is sure.

"This isn't working!" she shouts to Mickey, while encasing one of the Heartless in the ice of a Blizzaja, leaving it frozen for a couple of seconds.

He looks up at her, then declares: "We gotta reach the Light and use it to escape!"

She nods – much as she'd like to slay these creatures… they seem to be growing stronger and stronger the longer this fight lasts. They can't win this fight, not while they have to protect the orb.

Aqua backflips out of the range of the one of the Heartless' swipes, then turns her back to it and runs. From the corner of her eye, she can see Mickey sprinting beside her – he's keeping up with her easily in spite of the shortness of his legs.

Behind them, all three Heartless screech again and Aqua can taste the way their Darkness taints the air. They are preparing some kind of coordinated attack, probably… and sure enough, dark purple orbs of energy shoot past her and Mickey and slam directly into her barrier.

The barrier cracks and falls away, revealing the orb again… just in time for her and Mickey to reach into it and grab… a card?

Blinding Light pierces through the Darkness around them, forcing Aqua to close her eyes as she feels herself being tugged away… out of the Realm of Darkness.

Brilliant white is all that she sees when she finally opens her eyes, but it takes her a moment to realize that it isn't the light that's so bright around her… she– they are in a room of some kind, one with bright white walls, floor and ceiling.

"Well…" Mickey starts, tugging a little at his shirt (where or when did he get that?). "I think we've finally made it to the outside. Do you have any idea where we are though?"

For a moment Aqua wants to shake her head, but then she hesitates… there is _something_ that's familiar about this place.

She closes her eyes and stretched out her senses… somewhere close by she can sense the bright-dark twine of Riku's presence and that of several others, all of them unfamiliar. Beneath that though, she can feel the faint hum of the Heart of this World, familiar and welcoming… welcoming her _home._

Her eyes snap open again as relief and giddiness flood her being.

"I know where we are," she says. "This is the Land of Departure."

* * *

Entering the third basement floor and with that the memory of Destiny Islands… Riku doesn't really want to admit to the relief he'd felt when the warm breeze typical for his home world had brushed over the skin of his arms.

There is no quite denying it though – he's glad to see his home, even if it's just a memory and not the real thing.

His thoughts are still hung up on what the Nobody from before had told him though…

Sora is _here._

Much as he wants to be irritated with him – he'd told him to take care of Kairi, hadn't he? – Riku is also just a little happy that he'll be able to see his friend, if he makes it up and out of the damn basements probably.

("Are you not ashamed?" the Nobody had said, and Riku pushes the memory of that conversation away. He's home now. Surely, he'll be able to meet his friends regardless of what's happened to his Heart.)

Yet, when he finds Selphie, Tidus and Wakka… they have not even a word for him, disappearing when he dares to come too close and Riku can't help but feel just a little shaken.

("You can only see those who exist in the same Darkness as you," Maleficent had told him and for all that Riku hadn't met anything but envoys of Darkness in this castle… here, in this memory, there have to be people that he knows, that he wants to meet.

Right?)

He turns his head when he sees movement from the corner of his eye and turns back towards the bridge and the paopu tree, a heavy sigh of relief escaping him when he sees Kairi.

He calls her name as he starts sprinting – he just wants to hear her voice, even if she's only a memory.

"Hey Kairi. Are you–" he starts, but then gasps when she disappears right before his eyes, fading the same way that Selphie, Tidus and Wakka had before.

"No…" he whispers, the knot in his chest aching as his eyes close and he reaches out – maybe if he wills it hard enough, maybe then Kairi will–

"Surely you knew this would happen."

He turns around to face the Nobody that had given him the card to his home in first place, who had challenged him to face the 'truth', but before he can even think of a thing to reply, the Nobody continues calmly, affecting a distantly scolding tone:

"You've been to a number of worlds in your memory before this one. And in those worlds, you met only dark beings. That's all that's left in your Heart: dark memories. Your memories of home are one – each and every one."

"That's a lie!" Riku shouts, tense and angry ( _desperate_ ), because this can't be true. He remembers his home, his parents, his neighbors–

"They're my… my–" the words don't quite want to make it past his lips, even though he knows them true… he's ashamed, not of them, but of himself, because really how could he have ever forgotten about…

"My closest friends…"

He can't even bring himself to look at the Nobody, when he finally admits that, his Heart so heavy with regret, with guilt–

"And who threw away those friends?" the Nobody accuses. "Maybe it's your own actions that you've forgotten. You destroyed your home!"

And with those words, the winds around them suddenly pick up, now angry rather than soothing, darkness falling over the Islands, and Riku knows exactly…

"This is… that night!"

The night that he, they had left the Islands… that he had opened the Keyhole of their world on Ansem's promise that it would show him to the Outside World… he hadn't known…

As if picking up on those thoughts, the Nobody's accusations continue: "All of the Islands you grew up on were sundered, scattered. Many Hearts were forever lost to the Darkness. Because of what _you_ did!"

He points at the memory of Riku himself standing at the edge of the Island, and Riku can't help but gasp, can't help but remember what he had felt that night, the exhilaration of touching the Darkness…

"You hated being an Islander, so you opened the Door to Darkness and destroyed the Islands. It was _you_! You were pulled into the Darkness, and now you belong to the Darkness."

Horror washes over Riku as he watches the phantom of himself being engulfed by the Darkness… transforming into a giant Heartless before his eyes.

"This… this can't be who I really am!"

It can't– the Darkness… it doesn't have that kind of hold on him, not anymore!

("Even in the deepest Darkness there's a little bit of Light," the King had said when they had spoken last… but if there really is any light, any hope to be found amidst the sheer despair Riku is feeling… right now Riku can't see.)

He fights.

Of course, he fights the Darkside – how else can he prove to himself and everyone else that this isn't him, that he is more than just a being of Darkness.

He wins, but between the physical drain of the fight and the emotional one from the confrontation before… Riku knows he's exhausted.

Then, he sees Sora standing at the edge of what remains of their Islands' memory, and how can he not run up, how can he not _hope_ –

"Sora, it's me–" he gasps as he reaches for his best friend's shoulder, just so happy to finally see him again–

But battle instinct is ingrained into every fiber of his being, and that's what saves him when Sora tenses and swings around. It lets him leap back in the last second to avoid the blow. Then, Sora jumps and brings down the Kingdom Key at Riku's head heavily, but Riku manages to summon the Soul Eater, Darkness crackling as the sword comes into being.

"Stop it, Sora!" he grits out, his block just barely enough to keep the Keyblade from hitting him. "Don't you recognize me?"

"Yeah, I recognize you." Sora snarls. "I can see exactly what you've become!"

Then he jumps back, light gathering at the tip of his Keyblade before shooting straight at Riku. It hurts, leaves him stunned for a second.

Beyond the haze of pain, he can hear Sora asking: "How can the Light hurt you? Riku… Have you really become a creature or the Dark?"

He comes to a conclusion before Riku can do anything more than sit up, his voice steady with determination: "You're not Riku anymore… You're just a pawn of the Darkness. So be it. It's time for you to face the Light!"

Light gathers again at the tip of the Kingdom Key, blindingly bright as it engulfs first Sora, then the Islands, then Riku. It burns on his skin, hurts so much that it steals away his breath.

This is how I'll die, Riku thinks… and maybe that's not so bad. If he has to die… if he has no right to live with the Light anymore, then dying by Sora's hand isn't so bad.

The pain recedes, but Riku knows better than to think that that means anything but that he's… fading.

"You won't fade," a girl's voice speaks in the light, echoing a little in the emptiness of the bright place between the realms.

It's so familiar, Riku thinks, breathless with relief, because he can sense her in the Light, a bright presence that smells like sand and ocean and laughter.

It's _Kairi_.

"You can't fade," she says. "There's no power that can defeat you – not the Light, not the Dark."

That's some confidence she has in him there, he thinks to himself… since his defeat at Sora's hand and the chain of consequences that had come from being possessed by Ansem, Riku knows better than to think himself invincible.

But then… that's not what she's saying, is it?

"Don't run from the Light," she continues, "–and don't fear the Darkness! Because both will make you stronger."

And that's… after all the time he's spent running, all the time he's spent trying to fight off the Darkness inside and around him…

"Make me stronger? Darkness too?"

How can the Darkness make him stronger when all it does is try to consume him? How can that ever truly be his own–

"It'll be strength that's yours." Kairi assures him, almost as though she knows his thoughts. "The Darkness inside your Heart – it's vast and it's deep… but if you can truly stare into it and never try to look away, you won't be afraid of anything again."

And that… that's appealing.

He'd spent so much time fearing, being anxious… about being a good role model for the others, about having all the answers once they made it to the Outside World… then about finding Kairi's Heart… and now the Darkness inside himself.

Riku finds, he really is sick of being afraid – of that and anything else.

"You've gotta just remember to be brave," Kairi continues. "Know that the Darkness is there and don't give in. If you do that, you will gain strength – the kind that's unlike any other. You'll be able to escape the deepest Darkness–"

"–and I'll be able to see through the brightest Light," Riku finishes the thought for her.

"Follow the Darkness," she says. "It'll show you the way to your friends."

And much as he longs for that, them… after all that's happened in the memory of the Islands he can't help but ask: "Can I face them?"

(Do I deserve to?)

Kairi's voice takes on a faintly teasing edge: "You don't want to?"

"You know I do," Riku scoffs, because Kairi has always been the best at seeing past his posturing and she really should know better than to even ask this. "Of course."

He wants to see them all, Selphie, Tidus and Wakka… and Sora and Kairi.

He wants to go _home_.

And he will.

He'll see them again, he'll one day return to the Islands he was born on, and the Darkness will help him get there.

"Darkness!" he calls as he reaches into himself and tugs at the power in his Heart, the tempered Darkness as Ansem had called it, calling it to surface.

The Darkness wraps around him and forms a suit, the Soul Eater familiar and warm against his palm as Riku concentrates at the smell of the Darkness around him, before striking out at the source of the Nobody's Darkness that the layers of Light are trying to hide.

"Impossible!" the Nobody gasps. "How is it that you found me when you were there in the Light?"

"You reek of Darkness," Riku snorts, wondering a little how he hadn't sensed the Nobody sooner. Now that he knows what to look for, the Nobody's presence burns like a too deep breath of spices in his nose. "Even the Light can't block the smell. I guess, I followed the Darkness right to you."

"This is absurd…" the Nobody declares; he's definitely thrown off balance by Riku's new found strength and confidence, but nevertheless ready to fight. "Then I shall make you see… that your hopes are _nothing_ – nothing but a mere illusion!"

Riku shifts and brings up the Soul Eater in overhead stance, ready to face the other – he's no longer afraid, not of the Darkness and not of anything the Nobody might be able to dish out.

"Bring it on!"

* * *

Much as Aqua would like to bask in the moment of her discovery and the knowledge that she has finally made it back to Ventus, barely a second passes before she shakes her head sharply and takes a couple of steps towards the sphere by the corner of the room.

She traces her hand over the glass, her eyes widening with surprise when she sees a floor plan coming up.

Strange, she can't remember installing anything like that when she had rebuilt the castle…

Aqua frowns faintly as she toggles the tool to give her some idea of where exactly they are – it seems that they've wound up in the first basement floor, she notes.

Behind her, Mickey walks up, head tilting. "You said, you know this world? I don't think I've ever heard about a Land of Departure…"

"This is where we grew up… where Master Eraqus trained us," she answers absently, now focused on the strange unfamiliar presences that she senses inside her castle…

There are people here, steep in Darkness… but somehow incomplete? She doesn't know how to make sense of it.

Mickey takes to this new information with just a nod, brows furrowing a little before he asks: "Then… this is where Ven has been staying?"

"Yes," she nods. "When I left the Tower, Ven led us here… but the world was well on its way to fall into Darkness. So, I changed it… and made sure that Ven would be safely hidden until his Heart found its way back."

She shakes her head again. Much as she wants to rush to the Chamber of Waking and apologize to Ven for taking so long… there are other pressing matters to attend. She's made other promises as well after all.

"I think, Riku is a couple of floors below us… we should hurry."

Between the strange presences she senses and his battle with Xehanort and the Darkness, she really doesn't want to leave that boy by himself any longer.

Her fears appear well founded, because she can sense the foul presence of Xehanort's Darkness the moment they enter the second basement floor. Her eyes widen a little when she sees Riku at the center of the room, his muscles tense as though he's fighting himself and Darkness rising from his skin.

Before she can think of a way to help him ward off that Darkness, Mickey has already reacted and concocted a spell that sinks into the boy's chest and makes the Darkness recede again.

Mickey breathes a sigh of relief, then smiles as he bounds up to Riku. "Sure glad we made it in time! That ought to keep Xehanort busy for a while."

Riku turns to face them, brows furrowing in faint confusion… almost as though he can't believe that they are actually here.

Aqua can't help but smile gently at him. "I'm sorry that we couldn't make it sooner, Riku."

Riku still seems a little shell shocked as he asks: "Your Majesty… Aqua… is this really you guys?"

Mickey nods encouraging, then laughs as Riku reaches down to carefully run his hands over the mouse king's cheeks, protesting lightly: "That tickles!"

Her hand draws up at the cute sight of the two boys, and Aqua can't quite suppress the urge to giggle at them. A moment later, Riku joins into her laugh, breathless with wonder as he looks up to her and says: "This time, you're not an illusion. I'm glad you guys made it out all right!"

"Well, we did promise… didn't we?" Aqua says and presses her hand lightly against her chest.

Riku nods, then lets himself fall backwards with a sigh, tension draining from his wiry frame, and Aqua kneels at his side in concern, ready to cast a Curaga to help him get back to his feet, but Riku looks at her with a faint smile tugging at his lips.

Even though it has been only a few minutes since Xehanort's latest attempt to take control of him, he seems relaxed… calmer and more confident than Aqua can remember seeing him since their reunion in the Realm of Darkness.

"Ahh… I'm okay. Don't worry," he says, waving off any offer of healing magic before she can make it. "I guess, I'm just relieved. I've… I've been alone so long that having someone else around is… is a little… overwhelming."

Aqua reaches over to brush the strands of his silver hair out of his face, then rests her hand on his shoulder. "I understand… more than you know."

After all those years alone in the Darkness, it's strange to her too… to have someone else around, but it's a good kind of feeling.

Riku tenses a little under her hand again, as though he's pulling himself together again, then asks: "Though… how did you guys make it here? I thought it was too far."

Mickey pulls out the card that had brought them here from the back pocket of his pants, studying it for a moment.

"We found this card to help us," he says. "It appeared in the Darkness when we hit a dead end on our search for a way out, and led us right here to you. I guess, the card thinks its place is to be with you."

He holds out the card for Riku to take.

Aqua pulls her hand away as Riku pushes to his feet and takes the card, studying it with a frown. "Maybe you are right."

"Do you know what it is?" she asks him, curious. She'd never seen cards like this before the one that had drawn Riku out of the Darkness, and yet… they clearly seem to be connected to her castle.

"It's a memory card," Riku explains. "Though… I have no idea what world this is."

He walks up to the door that leads into the floor proper. "I guess, there's only one way to find out."

The card glows as he holds it to the door, then the door opens and Riku steps inside. Aqua catches Mickey's eyes for a second and makes to follow… but suddenly finds her way blocked by the pathway of Darkness that opens right in front of her.

Aqua tenses up instantly, the air ringing faintly as Master Keeper falls into her hand. At her side, Mickey has summoned his Keyblade as well.

The Darkness parts, revealing a strangely clothed man in a red robe. His face is concealed by bandages of the same color.

Aqua has never seen him before, and the sense of his Heart – steep in Darkness, though not nearly as much as some others she senses in her castle, and hardly on the level of Xehanort – makes her uneasy.

"There is no need for that, young Keybearer… King Mickey," he says, nodding at their Keyblades. "I am hardly your enemy."

"Or so you would like us to think," Aqua snaps at him, her grip on Master Keeper tight. "Who are you? What are you doing in my castle?"

" _Your_ castle?" The bandaged man tilts his head faintly in question. "I'm not sure what makes it yours to claim… but I do have to question your allegiance… considering what you've let run amuck in this place."

"What I've let… What are you talking about?" she asks, tense even though Mickey has lowered his Keyblade and stepped to her side, his free hand touching her arm as if to calm her.

"The Nobodies, of course," the man says. "Pitiful creatures of the Darkness that play at being human. They have controlled this castle for years now… though thanks to Sora and Riku's efforts their number on site were reduced to only one."

"What…" Aqua feels herself pale; she'd thought this castle would be safe of anything of the Darkness, that Ven would be _protected_ … the Chamber of Waking should be safe, nobody but her should be capable of finding it, him… Still…

"That remaining Nobody… he's certainly a nosy one," the bandaged man continues. "He has been manipulating everyone in this castle to ensure his own privacy. Judging by his current movements, he seems to be looking for something."

Aqua feels her stomach drop in dread, even as the man before her continues leisurely: "I wonder, young Keybearer… do you know what that could be?"

(Terra's warning echoes in her mind, the urgency of it. "Aqua… Xehanort is trying to locate Ven.")

Ven… It has to be Ven, she thinks.

She looks past the man to the door that Riku has disappeared into, torn between wanting to help Terra's successor and rushing off to find that Nobody. Mickey squeezes her arm gently, reminding her of his presence.

"I'll keep Riku safe," he promises and lets go of her arm as Aqua nods at him. She really has no idea what she'd do without him right now.

"Thank you, Mickey."

Then she turns her gaze at the bandaged man, fixating him with a glare. "I'm not done with you yet."

"By all means," he replies, sounding amused.

Aqua closes her eyes and puts aside her mistrust of this figure, focusing her senses on the one remaining presence of Darkness in her castle.

She isn't about to let it 'run amuck' in her home any longer.

* * *

If she's honest with herself, Naminé wasn't quite sure what to expect of the real Riku. She has Kairi's memories of him, of course, and she knows exactly how Sora feels about his best friend… but even both their perspectives combined don't quite reveal the whole picture of who Riku truly is.

To Sora, Riku was always a little larger than life – always older, always the one with all the answers… at least until their journey into the Worlds – and even Kairi, ever perceptive, was so used to relying on him that she hadn't quite noticed his isolation, even though the strength of his desire to escape the Islands had made her uneasy.

The Replica, for all that it had been made of his memories captured his anger and his need to prove himself, but most of the data had come from Sora…

Seeing him now, watching him as he takes in the news about what happened to Sora… Naminé wonders a little about what fears he'd hidden away before leaving the Islands, because surely there must have been fears that he had.

The Darkness and the man hiding inside it would have never been able to touch him otherwise.

"You have a choice to make, too," she tells him – and even though the bandaged man that had introduced himself as DiZ had come to her earlier and told her to make this offer, she is a little hesitant.

Riku as he is now is different than the Riku he was before… but to take that change back or not, that's what this choice is all about, isn't it?

He is ever fast to the uptake, realizing quickly: "I will forget, won't I?"

"The Darkness in you will be sealed tight along with your memories. You won't remember the Darkness anymore. You'll go back to how you were," she assures him, and carefully keeps herself from not biting down on her lip.

This is his choice to make, because he is the first one that truly has a choice about whether to make use of her powers. Even though she hopes… she mustn't interfere.

"Riku… please choose."

Despite her plea, Riku doesn't seem inclined to let himself be hurried about this – and he shouldn't. Instead, he takes a step up to Sora's pod, studying his sleeping best friend's face.

"He looks like he doesn't even have a care in the world," he notes before asking: "Will I sleep like that too?"

"Yes."

"Figures," Riku snorts, eyes never wandering off Sora. "Sora always does what he wants. Whatever we'd be doing together, he'd find a way to slack off. Even trying to leave the Islands… I was the one doing all the work on the raft."

"That's it!" he says with a shake of his head – his mind made up. "When this slacker wakes, I'll tell him off. I told him to take care of Kairi, and here he is just taking a nap!"

"But–" he turns to face her, a faint smirk gracing his face as he waggles his finger. "I can't chew him out like he deserves… if I've been asleep."

Naminé can't help a faint gasp, but Riku continues, now more serious: "I don't need my Heart locked. I'm ready – I'll fight Ansem."

"But… what if his Darkness overtakes you?" she asks.

But Riku is truly ready; he knows the answer to that too. "If that happens, then the Darkness will show me the way."

Naminé laughs faintly, happy, because he is right.

"Heh," Riku says. "Why do I get the feeling that you know I would say that?"

"I didn't know," Naminé denies and shakes her head. "I hoped. I wanted _you_ to face the Darkness, because you're the one who can."

Because Riku really is as strong – physically and mentally – as Sora and Kairi think of him, she knows. Even in the deep Darkness of Ansem's shadow, his Heart still shines brightly.

"That's why you came to my rescue inside that Light… in the form of Kairi." Riku says knowingly, startling her. She hadn't expected him to figure her out so easily.

Naminé can't help but ask: "When did you know?"

"I knew when I met you," he admits. "You and Kairi smell alike."

And well… it really shouldn't surprise her that he can sense that connection they have.

He holds out his hand in offer, sea-green eyes soft but preceptive as he asks: "Please… look after Sora."

"I promise, I will," she says, taking his hand into hers. The warmth and weight of it… it's comforting.

"I'll hold you to that," Riku smirks faintly, but before he can turn to leave, Naminé tugs at his hand.

There is something…

"Riku… there is a woman who came to this castle. You two are connected, aren't you?"

He nods. "You mean Aqua… she appeared in the Realm of Darkness, fighting the Heartless there. I don't know how she got there though."

"I think…" he continues slowly, rubbing his forehead with his free hand, "I think, Sora and I might have met her before, but that was when we were kids… my memory of it is really faint."

Naminé nods, thoughtful as she considers this… maybe there will be an answer about this woman in Sora's memories. In any case…

"Aqua… I don't know what it is, but she has a connection to this castle," she finally says. "I sense a great sadness about her."

Riku frowns faintly, then shrugs. He's right too, of course… there is nothing either of them can do right now.

Naminé finally lets go of his hand. "Be careful, Riku. Don't underestimate Ansem or he'll take you over again."

And if that happens, then–

But Riku just grins at her – it's not the arrogant smirk that Kairi has known in recent years, but a genuine expression of confidence. "Don't worry about me; I'll keep my part of our promise."

And with that, he leaves.

Naminé watches after him, her hands pressed against the empty place in her chest… but even without her Heart, she's certain.

Riku will be fine.

* * *

Axel will be the first to admit, he's never spent much time pondering on the layout of Castle Oblivion – the job he's been sent here to do hadn't left him much time for that after all, and he's never really been one for architecture anyway. Now that he has the time and freedom to wander the castle properly though, he can't help but wonder a little about whatever the person that had put this place together had been thinking.

Between the structuring of the top floors and the basements, it's so very straight forward at the first glance… but the closer he tries to get to the heart of the castle, the more of a maze it seems to become.

It really doesn't help that the corridors all look the same, of course.

It's really unfortunate that he can't just quit and call it a day on this – Saïx had impressed the importance of finding the Chamber of Waking on him before leaving, the undertone swinging in his voice leaving no doubt that this part of his mission is crucial to their own plans.

And well… given that Saïx is the one with the in on Xemnas, working his behind off as the de-facto second-in-command of the Organization XIII… well, Axel just has got to do his own part, so the two of them can come out on top of it all.

They've spent the better part of the last ten years being patient about it, after all.

The thought of that doesn't make the icky tediousness of aimlessly wandering the castle and checking each and every room in hope for the Chamber of Waking any more bearable… and honestly, Axel is only a couple of hours into his search and yet he's already reaching the point where he'd really rather go home.

Or to the Clocktower in Twilight Town and hang out some with Roxas… that kid is getting more and more fun, now that he's stopped just being a blank card of a being.

Axel is about to truly call it for today at least and return to the room he's claimed as his own to catch up on some z's – the only people left awake in this castle are Riku and Naminé probably, and with neither knowing that he's even still here, he probably won't even have to worry about anyone trying to murder him in his sleep – when the air around him shifts… just before he hears the clicking of heels against the stone floor coming up behind him.

Weird, he thinks, because Naminé's sandals don't have heels that make sounds like _that_ , and with Larxene dead he really has no idea just who–

He turns just in time to see a blue-haired woman come to stop at the entrance of the floor, her breath a little labored, but her eyes are cutting into him like steel when she catches sight of him.

Axel has never seen her before; not in this life and certainly not before that either.

"Well, well, well…" he says, mostly to cover his surprise at her appearance; he really hadn't thought there was anyone but the kids left in this castle. "To think we'd have a new player joining us so late in the game!"

"Game?" the woman asks after a moment, her eyes narrow and burning with anger. "What are you talking about, Nobody?"

"Why, the great survival tournament of Castle Oblivion, of course!" he answers with a grin and not a small amount of irony. "And the winner gets to claim the great prize!"

She gasps, realization flickering over his face and Axel can't help but draw up his eyebrow when she says: "…The Chamber of Waking."

"Oho?" he asks, his grin widening into a sharp smirk. No matter who she is… it seems that he's hit the jackpot on cracking that particular secret. "So, you know about that, eh?"

"I won't let you get near it," she answers. "Not you, not Xehanort, not anyone else who dares to harm my friends."

There's a story there, he's sure – especially with a name like 'Xehanort' involved; now there's a name he hasn't heard in a long time – but it's not like he has the Heart to care about it.

"My name–" the woman continues, her voice cold and firm as small lights swirl by her right hand, forming into… a Keyblade!? "–is Master Aqua."

"Now get out of my _home_ , or pay the price!"

 _\- To Be Continued -_

Thanks again to the Boyfriend for giving this chapter the proof-reading it deserves! Also, I've decided I'll post new chapters every other week, so you'll see me again around the 15th or so!

Please consider to leave me a review if you enjoyed this chapter! ;)


	5. Act 01 – Chapter 04

Welcome to the next chapter of BtLD!

I'm really excited about posting this chapter, because so many things are happening. Also, I should note that I made a minor edit in the last chapter – just changed the line since it was correctly pointed out to me that Axel does indeed know about Xehanort. |D;

It doesn't change anything in more than a sentence, but still… it might get more important further down the line. :|a

In any case, enjoy the chapter! :3

 **– Beyond The Long Darkness –**

 **– Act 01 – Chapter 04 –**

Aqua has lost track of just how many flights of stairs she's taken in the last couple of minutes – her senses are focused on that last remaining strange presence of Darkness in her castle, and she trusts her feet to carry her right to it.

If the bandaged stranger has really told the truth, if these dark beings – Nobodies? – have really taken over her castle…

Ven should be safe regardless, thanks to the 'trick' of their predecessors, and still Aqua can't stand the thought of anything of the Darkness roaming these corridors freely, not that she is back and able to _protect_ both Ven and their home.

By the time she finally finds the source of the Darkness – a man(?) with wild, red hair that pushes past his shoulders – she's a little out of breath, her heart beating fast at her throat.

It threatens to falter the second this Nobody reveals his aim for the Chamber of Waking.

(For _Ven_.)

Terra's warning rings in her ears once more as she pulls herself together; and now that the shock of the Nobody's admission is fading, Aqua feels cold fury rising within herself.

"My name is Master Aqua," she tells him. "Now get out of my _home_ , or pay the price!"

She has barely finished speaking when she leaps forward, both hands around the grip of Master Keeper in aim to fell the Nobody with just that one strike – but it only passes through air as the Nobody jumps back and well out of her way.

"Now, that wasn't very nice!" the Nobody says, shaking his head at her in condescending manner. "But if it's a fight you want, _Master_ Aqua, then I'll gladly be the one to play with you."

"Introductions first though," he continues as fire magic sparks at his fingertips and spins into two wheel-like weapons. " _I_ am Axel."

His head tilts, his grin wide and sharp as he asks: "Got it memorized?"

The Nobody – Axel – is onto her before she can even react to that odd phrasing, using his greater height and reach to bear down at her.

Aqua can't help a small gasp when she suddenly finds herself pushed to the defensive, first blocking his repeated strikes with just her Keyblade, before calling onto a Barrier to avoid being struck by the edges of his odd weapons.

He is a good fighter, she can admit after a moment of watching him from behind the shield of the Barrier; strong and fast, and very used to using his superior speed to his advantage.

But… he is by far not as good as she is.

Aqua breaks the Barrier and uses its pieces to drive him back a little, but instead of giving chase she aims her Keyblade right at him, magic pulsing as she unleashes a Blizzaga.

The ice crystal holds him for just a fraction of a second before fire sparks at his feet and melts away the offending spell easily.

"Heh, you sure got no concept of a slow start, do you?" he laughs, before he slams his hands down into the ground, turning the floor into lava(?!) as walls of flames rise up around them.

"Burn, baby, burn," is all he says before disappearing into the flames, leaving Aqua tense in the middle of the battle ring he's drawn up, waiting for his attack.

And sure enough, he breaks out from the flames behind her with a loud battle cry, and she's only barely able to dodge the fiery pillar that shoots up when he hits the molten ground. He leaves himself open in that one second, so she dodges forward and _strikes_.

Axel grunts as she strikes his side, then his stomach with the tip of Master Keeper, then he uses his weapons to block off any further hits before jumping back again to get some distance in between them.

His breath is a little shaken though, and at the same time the walls of flames and the molten ground die down again. She sends another ice spell after him – she's smarter than to allow him time to collect himself – then lets magic sparking in her fingers take hold of her Keyblade before rushing right at him again.

Axel manages to block the first few strikes, before she sidesteps him and finds the hole in his defenses; and from that point there's no hope for him.

He had lost most of his advantage the moment his earlier spell had faltered, and with every strike that connects Aqua is growing stronger, building up to her own final–

Then, his body language changes from one second to the next and he manages to slip away under her Keyblade, before throwing both of his weapons at her in rapid succession. Aqua's eyes widen when she feels the build-up of magic, and she can't help crying out when the wheels suddenly explode.

The impact of the spell throws her back and sends her rolling over the floor, her ears still ringing a little when Axel speaks up: "Well, that was _fun_! Ten-outta-ten would do again, and all that jazz, but I think I've _really_ overstayed my welcome here."

Aqua looks up just in time to see Darkness rising at his feet, and a second later he's stepped back into it – " _Wait_!" she shouts, but the Darkness has already enveloped him, then dies down, leaving nothing behind.

She takes a deep breath and concentrates, trying to pick up his Darkness again… but wherever Axel had gone, he really has disappeared from Castle Oblivion, as he had called her home.

Well… it's something at least, she supposes, to have him gone from the castle for the moment. Ven has been protected from immediate discovery… and given that she's been back in the Realm of Light for barely an hour, that's not bad at all.

She swings Master Keeper and the lets healing magic of a Curaga wash away the scrapes and bruises she's taken in this fight, ready to dismiss it, when–

 _Xehanort._

Once again, she can sense his Darkness rising… so deep and terrible… and once again threatening to overwhelm her best friend's successor.

She can't let Riku down, not when she had failed Terra and the Worlds so badly, she thinks as she races down the stairs of her castle and towards the halls where she had left behind Mickey and the bandaged man.

They haven't moved far; she finds both of them waiting in the hall before the first basement floor. Mickey is pacing before the door, his tail swishing low over the floor behind him whenever he turns, while the bandaged man stands by the side of the room, hands hidden away in the long sleeves of his red robe.

And somewhere… somewhere beyond that door, she can sense Riku fighting.

"What happened? Why aren't you with Riku?" she asks sharply when she reaches them, fixating the bandaged man with a wary glance even as she waits for Mickey to answer.

Mickey just shakes his head, his frown worried. "He wanted to do this alone, Aqua. Even at the risk that Xehanort might take control of him again, he wanted to face him by himself. I couldn't deny him that chance."

"Do not blame King Mickey," the bandaged man says before she can do more than stare horrified at her friend. "It was the boy's choice to face the Darkness, rather than to sleep and forget."

Her eyes snap back up to him, narrowed and angry. "What do you mean by 'Riku's choice'? And really… who are you anyway?"

"You may call me DiZ. As for young Riku… he was given the opportunity to have the witch Naminé use her powers on him and have her lock him whom you call Xehanort forever in the depth of his Heart. As you can sense, no doubt–" he nods at the door at the end of the room. "–the boy has chosen to fight instead."

"And you let him!" she snaps at the bandaged man, DiZ, and then turns to Mickey. "You know how dangerous Xehanort is, Mickey! We can't just leave Riku to face him alone; especially when he's relying on the Darkness!"

Because that's what she's sensing him do right now, what he has been doing since shortly before they made it into the castle… use the Darkness, instead of relying on just the Light and the bond that they've forged.

(And Aqua really can't help but think of Terra in the Graveyard, so full of regret and grief, rage and hate… and really what else is Darkness, but that? He shouldn't have fought Xehanort then. They shouldn't have let him fight all alone.)

Mickey looks up at her, pleading: "Aqua, the way that Riku is using the Darkness… it's different from anything I've ever seen. That's why I wanted to give him this chance… to fight Xehanort's Darkness with his own, and show us a new path."

But Aqua takes a step towards the door, hands clenched into fists. "I…"

She thinks about what the Fairy Godmother had told her oh so long ago about fighting Darkness with Light… she had been right then, and maybe Mickey is right now, but still…

"I'm sorry, Mickey. I can't take the risk that Xehanort might win."

Because that cursed old man had taken enough already. She won't let him have Terra's successor too.

Without any further glance back, she pushes the doors open and steps inside.

* * *

The hallways of the Castle Oblivion card are long and dark, Riku has to admit – almost as eerie as the deep dark corners of the castle in Hollow Bastion.

It's a sight that Riku is more than used to though, and now that he knows that it isn't just him alone facing the envoys of Darkness in this castle… well, he's glad still. The faint pulse of combined magics of Aqua and the King twine with the Darkness under his skin and as long as he keeps combining these powers, he knows that he won't lose.

Not even to Ansem.

He forces himself to relax a little when he enters the final room of the floor, eyes closing for a second as the stench of utterly foul Darkness assaults his senses. This is it.

"I smell you, Ansem," he says, then demands: "Show yourself."

And unlike earlier when he had called for his enemy in the hallway leading to this room, Ansem appears before him, smiling almost as though he's just indulging Riku here, as though the outcome of this encounter is already set in his favor.

"You and I are much alike," he says and really… Riku doesn't see what should connected them beyond their ties to the Darkness… which is really one tie too many already.

He shakes his head when Ansem asks if he still holds fear of the Darkness, his fingers curling as the Darkness twins into the Soul Eater and falls into his hand – and really, unlike the last few times Riku had been asked the question, he has the confidence to declare his lack of fear properly. Besides, the truth is…

"I just can't stand the way you _stink_!"

Ansem calls him a fool, tries to tempt him with powers that Riku had once eagerly embraced and yet lost with – so really, who's the fool here?

"Very well," Ansem says when he refuses him, drawing back and crossing his arms over his chest as Darkness starts to rise from his body. "In that case… you shall sink into the abyss!"

Deep, black waves of energy wash over him just seconds later, and when Riku can finally dare to open his eyes again, the room around him has changed. There is only Darkness… and a stark white platform that reminds him a little too much of what he remembers from the Realm of Darkness.

There's no time for him to keep musing though, because a second later Ansem's Guardian makes a grab for him. Riku jumps back, lifting his sword up as he glares at the Heartless, who is hovering in the air above him, a condescending smile gracing his face.

It'll be a pleasure to wipe it off, Riku thinks and dashes forward, but then dodges to the side when the Guardian sends white waves of crackling energy after him.

Ansem just laughs lowly when his eyes narrow in irritation; Ansem is just keeping his distance, arms crossed tightly over his chest as he lets the Guardian do the attacking for him.

Well, all that means it is time to draw him out properly.

Riku forces himself to relax as he draws on the Darkness, letting it slip onto his skin and form that protective suit, then draws back his left hand as fire sparks at his palm and forms into a Dark Firaga that he unleashes right at Ansem.

The Heartless sees it coming, of course, but his block keeps in place long enough for Riku to slide closer and unleash a series of strikes on him. He grimaces faintly when the Guardian lashes out at him with one arm, catching him in the side and shoving him away from Ansem; but he's taken worse hits during his time in this castle.

"I have nothing to fear from _your_ power," the Heartless shouts even as Riku uses the Darkness to teleport himself into the air above Ansem and aim the Soul Eater straight at his head, cutting away at him twice before the Guardian wards him off again.

"You think so?" Riku asks as a faint smirk flashes over his face and he draws more of the Darkness out of his Heart. "Do you want to know the difference between us? I know how to _use_ the Darkness… but you? You only let the Darkness use _you_!"

Because that's what he's learned about the Darkness thanks to Naminé – the feelings that caused it inside him, the anger and insecurity… fearing or denying them won't make them go away. But… accepting them, like he has now… that's true strength.

And that's the strength that he'll use to beat Ansem for good.

Finally, his strikes manage to break Ansem's concentration so badly that the Darkness swirls around them and leaves them standing back in that room in Castle Oblivion; and though Riku is also breathing heavily he knows that this time, this is where he'll finish off his enemy for good.

The Darkness has slipped back under his skin again, but he doesn't need it right now. Ansem, looking exhausted and angry, clenches his hand and unleashes one last orb of dark energy at Riku, cursing: "Insolent _brat_!"

Riku lifts the Soul Eater to guard himself against the magic, then closes both hands around his sword as he rushes up at the Heartless, quickly sidestepping any attempt to block his attack as he cuts right into Ansem.

"This is… the end!" he says, certain of himself.

The struggle between him and Ansem… it's finally over.

Ansem disagrees, of course, but Riku can hear the effort it takes him to speak as he rasps: "This… is hardly… the end."

"Your Darkness–" he continues as Riku turns to look at him. "I gave it… all to you… My dark shadow… lingers… Someday… someday, I will _return_!"

A second later the Darkness of Ansem explodes over the room and Riku puts his arms up to shield himself, eyes closing as he feels Ansem's Darkness creep over his skin, looking for any way to enter his Heart–

"No, you won't," a familiar voice calls sharply. "Not while I have anything to say about that."

Then, there is Light… and Riku opens his eyes to wonder about the dome of silver and blue chains that has formed around all three of them – the Darkness has died down again and he can see both Ansem at the center of the room and Aqua just past him, her Keyblade drawn.

" _You_ –" Ansem hisses, recognition obvious from his voice, but Aqua cuts him off before he can say anything more.

"Xehanort–" she starts, pointing at him with her Keyblade while Riku frowns at her use of this unfamiliar name, "You've destroyed enough lives already. I won't give you yet another chance."

Light unfurls from the tip of her Keyblade and coils around Ansem (Xehanort?); the Heartless roars from pain as he fights his bonds. Even weakened as the Heartless is… Aqua is still struggling to keep him contained, Riku realizes quickly as he watches the events.

He wants to help, wants to do _something_ , but he is like frozen in place… he feels a hand at his shoulder, squeezing it slightly (except when his eyes drop down, there is nobody there?).

Then the dome of chains changes as reddish-gold twines with the silvery-blue of Aqua's magic, and suddenly Riku can feel his consciousness fading as a strange (but somehow familiar?) man's voice echoes through the room (or is it only in Riku's ears?).

"Enough! I won't give in… and I'll never let you hurt my _friends_!"

His knees give out under him, his eyelids fluttering and from one moment to the next Aqua is at his side, gently checking him for injuries… but the last thing he sees before the darkness claims him for good, is the brown-haired guy standing right where he'd slayed Ansem-Xehanort smiling faintly… familiar… the stranger from _that_ day on the Islands…

 _[His hands are tight in fists as he kicks at the sand; he's ever always so restless, so impatient to finally, finally see the Outside World…_

 _He looks at the horizon, at the deep reds of the sunset and the way it reflects in the waves…_

" _I know it's out there somewhere – the strength that I need."_

" _Strength for what?"]_

* * *

If there is one thing that Naminé cannot deny, it's that certain fascination that Sora's memories – and the strong emotions attached to them – spark inside of her. Every memory she drew out before had been so vivid in itself, given life by the connection to other people, to Sora's friends.

She should busy herself untangling the real memories that she had arranged to her liking… but instead she finds herself chasing after the hint that Riku had left her with… looking for Sora's memory of Aqua's visit to the Islands.

It takes her a while to find it and even longer to make sense of it – it's a blurry mess of a memory really, so old that it might as well be a dream – and well… it almost leaves her with more questions than answers.

Aqua… Naminé can sense that she is somehow connected to Castle Oblivion, that this place where she was born has strong ties to this woman. She can also sense another faint bond, between Aqua and something (or someone?) hidden in the very heart of this castle… a place that neither Naminé nor anyone of the Organization had ever found the entrance to.

It's strange and given that this bond also somehow loops back to Sora… Naminé can't help but worry a little.

Especially since she is almost certain that some of the memories that she's knocked loose have escaped beyond the castle and gotten lost… but where they have disappeared to…

She stares down at the scene that she's sketching out – Aqua crouching down under the bridge on the Play Island, just like Sora remembers – when she makes her decision. She has made promises, to Sora and to Riku… and she won't let them down.

So, Naminé grabs her sketchbook and her pencils and rushes down the stairs – DiZ might have told her to stay in her room and thought that she'd listen mindlessly… but even though his Darkness (his hatred) is steep enough for her to sense… he isn't as bad as Marluxia or Larxene had been… not by a long shot.

She has nothing to fear from him, no matter how angry he might get upon finding her disobey him already.

The door to the first basement's entrance is heavy against her shoulder when she opens it, and the first person it reveals is King Mickey, who flinches at the noise and looks guarded as he turns to her before he tilts his head in open surprise.

"Oh… Who are you?" he asks, kindness swinging in his voice as he relaxes again, but before Naminé can answer with anything more than a shy smile DiZ steps forward and to the King's side.

"That is Naminé, the witch that has caused Sora's sleep," he introduces her, and Naminé can't help letting her gaze drop as the empty space of her Heart throbs painfully… she can't feel guilty, she knows this, but…

"What are you doing here?" DiZ demands before she can get anymore lost in thought, so her eyes snap up to meet his.

Her voice isn't quite as steady as she would like, she says: "I… I'm here to meet Aqua. There are things that I need to ask her… about this castle and about its connection to Sora."

"Should you really concern yourself with such things?" DiZ asks as he studies her. "Sora must be woken again… and you are the only one with the ability to repair his memory. Everything beyond that task is not for you to think about."

Naminé just shakes her head. "If I just mindlessly pull Sora's memories back into him, it'll only become a jumbled mess… he'd wake up confused… or maybe even not at all. That's why I need to know… the memories that don't belong to Sora and yet were hidden within his Heart… where do they come from?"

She can see DiZ poised to disagree with her, but King Mickey cuts him off before he can say anything.

"Memories that don't belong to Sora?" he echoes her, then asks: "If they aren't Sora's memories, then who do they belong to?"

Naminé shakes her head, slightly dismayed as she answers: "That, I don't know. But… those memories have a strong connection to this castle. That's why I want to talk to Aqua."

DiZ frowns under his bandages, his gaze turning to King Mickey. "That friend of yours is quite curious, Your Majesty. Claiming this castle as her own mere minutes after arriving, when the Organization has been holding it for years already… and being able to defend that claim against one of their strongest members no less! She is truly curious, indeed."

He is plotting something already – even though she hasn't known him for long, Naminé can tell that much – maybe ways to use Aqua's presence here to his own advantage, the same way he wants to use Riku and also Sora once he wakes…

Naminé glances down at the sketch of Aqua she's drawn, her teeth biting lightly at her lower lip – Aqua is by all accounts a Keybearer grown… surely, she is stronger than Naminé, much more capable to take on the likes of DiZ or the Organization without being strong-armed into anything against her will.

Even so… there is also all the hidden hurt, she had sensed from the memories hidden inside Sora… connected to him, and somehow also to this castle. To Aqua…

There has to be a way to do something, to mend the pain – something that Naminé can do.

If she can help Sora or the people connected to him… even if it is only in a small way… yes, she would like that. It would be enough.

"Naminé–" DiZ says, startling her out of her thoughts. "You may relay your questions for Aqua to me. I shall make sure that they reach–"

But before he can finish his sentence, the doors behind him creak open loudly though and Aqua steps through… with Riku's unconscious form slung onto her back.

"And what questions would that be?" she asks, eyes narrow as she fixates DiZ with a glare, and Naminé really can't help but hug her sketchbook close to hide her relieved smile behind it.

Riku, it seems, is, while not awake, just fine – just as he had promised he would be.

He's beaten the monster inside his Darkness.

"If you are done pushing _children_ into choices they should not be expected to handle on their own, I suggest that you _leave_ my castle," Aqua notes pointedly at DiZ, her grip on Riku's legs tightening a little as she talks, and Naminé can see his eyes flutter when he's jostled by the shift.

"'m not a child," he mutters in protest, then groans faintly before jolting awake.

"Though…" he continues as Aqua lets him down to his feet, rolling his shoulders as though to work away stiffness in his neck, "…I agree; he sure does like pushing decisions on people."

He takes a second to send Naminé a reassuring smile before he joins the loose circle that they have formed around DiZ, arms crossing as he tilts his head and says: "My 'business' with Ansem is done. I'm guessing, next up we worry about that Organization?"

DiZ nods serenely, ignoring Aqua's earlier request and lingering glare. "Indeed… though you and Sora have dealt with five of their number already, they do not call themselves the Organization XIII without reason. According to my intel seven higher Nobodies yet remain, each similar in strength if not stronger in power than the ones you have faced so far."

"So, you suggest that we go after these Nobodies, and yet you've neglected to explain… what are they anyway?" Aqua asks sharply and now that she doesn't need to support Riku any longer, she draws up to her full height, using every inch to attempt to stare DiZ into submission.

DiZ seems only faintly unnerved by her unspoken threat, but complies nonetheless. "As I told you… they are creatures of the Darkness that play at being human… nothing but mere shadows of people. A Nobody, you see, is what comes into being when a truly strong Heart is lost to Darkness."

Riku frowns at that revelation, but then his eyes widen a fraction before snapping over to Naminé, a quiet sound – "Oh!" – escaping him, and really… given how quickly he had figured her out before, it shouldn't surprise her that he'd realize her true connection to Kairi after being given the final pieces to the puzzle.

She smiles at him tentatively, unsure what his reaction might be, but… there is nothing but new understanding in his eyes. No hatred or distrust that she would without a doubt deserve.

DiZ continues on, disregarding their byplay: "First of all though, we should move Sora, Donald and Goofy from this castle and to a secure location. It would be folly to let them remain here where the Organization knows to find them."

"Sora?" Aqua asks, her brows furrowing. "He's here?"

"He's asleep," Naminé says, daring to speak up for the first time since her arrival, then freezes on the spot when Aqua's eyes fall on her.

"Asleep? Don't tell me… has he lost his heart?"

"No!" Naminé quickly shakes her head to dispel that misconception. "He's lost his memories… well, I took them and pulled them apart. But I can put them back together too! That's why… why he needs to sleep right now."

"I see," Aqua says and though she's still frowning, her eyes are warmer by far while they linger on Naminé, before they snap back at DiZ.

"Then I expect you agree with my plan," he says, spreading his arms. "The safest move is to conceal those three until Naminé has repaired their memory."

"No, I don't!" Aqua replies sharply, then _moves_ forward – catching all of them off guard as she suddenly calls for her Keyblade and rushes past DiZ, hands tight on her weapon's grip. "I'm done letting my actions be dictated by a man who won't even show his face."

The bandages slowly fall away, revealing a middle-aged man with blond hair and yellow eyes.

For all that she knows plenty of the outside worlds thanks to Sora's and Kairi's memories, Naminé can't say she's ever seen his face… and from the looks of Riku's face, he doesn't recognize him either.

King Mickey though… he gasps, eyes wide as he says: "I knew you were familiar… you are Ansem! Ansem, the Wise!"

 _\- To be Continued -_

As always, thanks the Boyfriend for beta-reading!

As for when the next chapter is released… I can't make any promises actually. I'm still at the very start of the next one, sadly, and I have been struggling with my motivation to keep writing, even though I'd at least like to finish act 1 before KH3 releases.

So yea, there may be a chapter around new year or not. We'll see.

Please, consider leaving me a review! :D


	6. Act 01 – Chapter 05

Oh hey, it's a new chapter! And I'm only a few days late, I guess! |D;

This chapter is brought to you by all the nice comments and reviews I got for the last one here and over on Ao3; thank you so much guys for your encouragement – it drove me to hurry and write this chapter over the last few days!

I hope you enjoy the final part of the Chains of Memories Arc! :3

 **– Beyond the Long Darkness –  
** **– Act 01 – Chapter 05 –**

If asked in right that moment, Aqua wouldn't be able to deny feeling a certain vicious kind of satisfaction as she cuts through the red bandages of the man that calls himself DiZ. Ever since encountering him in her home not even an hour ago, his attitude had rubbed wrong at her, as had his certainty and the moves he's made to manipulate her and Riku.

She almost expects to see some version of Xehanort when she turns… but the face that her actions had revealed is entirely unfamiliar to her.

That is, at least until Mickey gasps and reveals a name that she can place.

Ansem, the Wise.

"…You mean, your old friend? The ruler of Radiant Garden?" she asks, a frown flickering over her face as she feels a twinge of guilt, before promptly pushing that down as she dismisses Master Keeper.

"Indeed, I was, young Keybearer," DiZ- _Ansem_ says, "At least until my treacherous apprentices casted me from my home and into the Darkness."

"They stole everything from me…" he continues before turning a little, his eyes lingering on Riku, who had taken a faintly alarmed stance ever since Mickey's reveal. "Even my name."

"Wait…" Riku says, eyes narrow as he relaxes a little. "So, you are saying that the Ansem I know – the one that we just fought – is just an imposter?"

Ansem nods, and tension drains entirely from Riku's frame as he lifts up one hand to his chin and frowns before turning to Aqua: "Then… the name you called him – Xeha-something. That's his real name?"

"Yes… Xehanort," Ansem says, his eyes cold with anger. "The most foolish of my apprentices. Though, maybe I was the fool for letting him talk me into experimenting on his Heart in first place."

"You did what?" Aqua snaps at him, feeling rigid as she thinks of Terra's possessed body, of that moment on the plaza in Radiant Garden when Terra had taken control back long enough to put Xehanort's Keyblade to himself–

(She regrets so much now that she knows that it wasn't him who had woken after she had sent him back from the Realm of Darkness, but if she had let him fall–)

"It doesn't matter now," Ansem continues. "Though I do wonder… how do you know Xehanort, Miss Aqua? He was void of any memory of his past when we found him."

(Her Heart clenches with guilt again – it's _her_ fault that all this happened, that Xehanort was free to roam the worlds, and bring them to fall…)

"Xehanort is the vilest existence that I know. He destroyed the life of my dear friends… but I won't let him have his way any longer!" she finally says, forcing her hands to relax a little so that her nails won't bite into the skin of her palms anymore. She ignores the way that Riku and the blond girl by his side silently exchange glances, the way that Mickey looks at her – Mickey knows best of all what Xehanort had done.

"If you know how dangerous Xehanort is… then you should be made aware that it is his Nobody that leads the Organization," says Ansem, folding his arms lightly.

"He will no doubt make attempts to take back Naminé–" he nods at the blond girl, "–and use her abilities to manipulate Sora once more. I will not deny that I have my own motivations to help you, but trust me in this. It would be folly to leave them unprotected in this castle."

But Aqua just shakes her head – she isn't going to give up on Castle Oblivion. This is her home, after all.

"Nobody will be left unprotected. I'm more than capable of defending us all, no matter how many members of that Organization are still left to be taken down," she tells him, eyes narrow in challenge, daring Ansem to disagree with her assessment.

Even if her own strength should falter, she thinks… the castle is not without its own defenses. It won't fall into enemy hands easily, not while she is here to command it.

"Your help is neither wanted nor needed," she concludes. "I won't let you stay near any of these children."

Riku makes a noise of protest that she ignores as Naminé reaches for his arm to calm him. Instead she keeps glaring at Ansem, right until the older man gives in, bowing slightly before he takes a step back towards the exit. "As you wish, young Keybearer. However, if you change your mind… I will take up residence just a world away."

And with that he leaves.

Aqua doesn't quite dare to relax until she can't sense any of the oily traces the old man's darkness left behind on this floor at least… though as she turns, she can see Mickey moving as though he is feeling a little antsy.

"I think, I better follow him," he finally says. "We might need his help at some point… and if the Organization does come back and tracks him, he'll be defenseless."

He turns his head back from the closed door and to Aqua until their eyes meet.

"Aqua… do you have things well in hand here?" he asks, clearly torn between his worry for her and that for his friend. But much as Aqua would appreciate still having his company… she isn't about to make this any harder on him.

"Go, Mickey. I can handle things from here on."

She is home now after all… she'll have to see Ventus now first, but she has little doubts in her skills now that there is no Darkness around her to fool her with phantoms.

She can protect them all here. Naminé and Sora, and Riku too.

(She should train him, really, she thinks. Terra's successor… he should know how to properly wield that weapon of his, even if it isn't a Keyblade just yet.)

Mickey nods and takes a step towards Riku – apparently, he has parting words for him as well.

"Riku… are you going to stay here with Aqua for now?"

Riku nods, smiling faintly as the mouse king. "Yes – that is, if you don't mind?"

The boy quickly glances over to her, and Aqua just smiles at the sudden quiet shyness in him, the reserved manner that she had also seen ten years ago on his Islands. (He still is so much like Terra.)

"There are a couple of things I'd like to know… and if that Organization is really after him, I want to protect Sora," he continues after turning his eyes back on Mickey, who nods encouragingly.

"Riku, I want you to know… up until meeting you, I thought that Darkness was something that should never exist. But then we spent time together, and I changed my mind. The road you chose… to use Light and Darkness back to back – I think with you they might meet in a way that nobody's ever seen before."

"You think so?" the boy asks, and Aqua is a little torn between smiling and grimacing – she isn't entirely sure if Mickey is right about that… but to say something like that… he must have seen something at least.

"I know so!" Mickey says, certain of himself. "You should keep following that road you've chosen! I sure wonder where it will lead you."

And with that he steps towards the large doors that lead towards the castle's exit, but not before turning back towards the three of them one last time.

"We'll see each other again soon, I'm sure. Until then… May your Heart be your Guiding Key!"

Aqua can't help but giggle a little as Mickey makes his exit and both of the children stare after him in slight bewilderment.

"…What kind of line was _that_?" Riku asks after a moment, torn between his respect for Mickey and his sheer bafflement.

Aqua calms her laughter a little, smiling as she explains: "It's a line of times long past… something that Keyblade Wielders used to say to each other in the old days. It hasn't been used in ages though."

She sighs then, finally feeling capable of relaxing now that the last traces of Ansem's Darkness have left her castle. Then she looks at the two children before her and nods to herself.

"Come, you two. There is someone in this castle that I want to introduce you to."

Riku can't help but frown a little as he and Naminé follow Aqua through the twisting corridors of Castle Oblivion's halls after her declaration; he can't help but wonder a little: "There is someone aside of us in this castle?"

He can't sense anyone after all – not the nothingness of a Nobody, and no Light or Darkness that would indicate another Heart's presence within these walls. Naminé seems equally puzzled… at least going by the faint tilt of her head that she considers Aqua with.

Aqua though is nothing but certain as she leads them further and further towards what must be the heart of the castle. She seems a little distracted, as she glances from door to door, but answers anyway: "That's right… the reason Castle Oblivion exists in its current form is to protect him."

That… well, that didn't help at all, Riku thinks to himself, but then resigns to finding out the details when Aqua is ready to give them.

Finally, they reach what Aqua has deemed their destination – a door that seems fairly plain from where Riku is standing; or at least no different to any other that he has seen within Castle Oblivion so far.

Aqua motions for them to stay back though as she summons her Keyblade again, gripping the handle with both hands as she unlocks the door, a faint beam of light shooting from the tip of her Keyblade and Riku can almost feel click of the magical lock falling into place down in his bones.

From the corner of his eye, he sees the shadow of _that_ man linger, a deep male voice, murmuring: "…So this is where she's hidden Ven."

There is nothing there though when he turns his head – and Riku can't help but wonder if he didn't just imagine both. He must have given the worried expression Naminé frowns at him with, when he stares at that empty spot for a few seconds longer.

He shakes his head, and focuses on what's ahead, watching the doors swing open slowly to reveal the brightly white walls of the chamber before them.

"Welcome to the Chamber of Waking," Aqua says absently as she leads the way into the room, walking right towards the tall chair in the center, where someone seems to be resting… though it's weird. Try as he might, Riku can't make out any presence of Light or Darkness with him.

Then Aqua steps aside to reveal–

"Sora?!" Riku gasps, but no– it can't be given that he knows exactly where Sora is right now, and looking closer… the boy in the chair, while just as wild haired as his best friend, is blond and a little older than maybe even Riku.

Naminé also gasps once she steps up to see the boy, her hands tight around her sketchbook and her eyes wide when she says: "It's him, isn't it… the chain of memories that aren't Sora's… they are his!"

Aqua turns around sharply at that, one hand protectively on the blond boy's shoulder as she fixates Naminé from across the room: "Ven's memories? What do you mean, Naminé?"

Riku turns slightly to watch Naminé from the corner of his eye, seeing her bite at her lower lip before she turns her gaze up from the ground to meet Aqua's eyes.

"Sora's memories… I told you that I pulled them apart, didn't I? While trying to piece them together again, I found a chain of memories that wasn't his… and yet was part of Sora's Heart."

She takes a step forward, to get a closer look of the boy that Aqua had called Ven. "I could sense that they had a connection to this place… to Castle Oblivion. That's why… why I wanted to talk to you. And now I've found the answer to my question."

Between those words, Aqua's earlier question about Sora and the weird non-sense that Riku is getting off the boy, the final piece falls into place and Riku can't help but feel his gut tighten a little as he asks: "This guy… Ven. He's lost his Heart, hasn't he?"

(He thinks of Kairi, and how she had slept in Hollow Bastion… how she had been just as peaceful yet lifeless as the boy in the chair.)

Aqua glances over at him, then turns her eyes back to Ven.

"That's right… Ventus' Heart fell into slumber after a great battle that we fought against Xehanort. Master Yen Sid… he said that his Heart would find its way back if we just believed in him… if Terra and I were to remain by his side."

Her free hand clenches while the one on Ventus' shoulder reaches up to brush his bangs off his forehead, while she continues her tale:

"Terra… Xehanort had taken him over, just like he tried with you, Riku. But when I had the choice between saving Terra and leaving him to fall into the Realm of Darkness… I couldn't let that happen. That's why I sent him back into the Realm of Light… and chose to remain in the Darkness."

Her eyes turn up again, anguish clearly visible as she says: "I didn't realize that it was Xehanort that I had sent back… so the worlds that fell in the time after… that you were nearly taken by him too… that is my fault. I'm sorry."

Riku shakes just his head. "Maybe you sent him back into the Realm of Light… but that Ansem– no, Xehanort possessed me was no-one's fault but my own. So, don't blame yourself for _that_ at least."

"Besides," he says, offering Aqua a faint grin. "I think it worked out well enough!"

She laughs at that, a little helplessly, and even Naminé giggles a little, before getting them back on topic.

"Aqua… I think, this whole time since Ventus lost his heart, it was sleeping in safety. It was with Sora."

"Then…" Aqua starts, a hopeful gleam in her eyes. "…with Sora asleep now, can we return Ven's Heart?"

Riku, too, feels his heart swell with hope – it doesn't seem right to him to see a person sleep like this, never, not after Kairi – but Naminé dashes those thoughts with a small shake of her head.

"It's not that simple… because you see… Sora was forced to unlock his own Heart to free another that was trapped with his. At that time, he also freed Ventus' Heart… I don't know where it has gone."

Aqua's shoulders slump a little as she sighs, her eyes closed and her whole body tense for a second, before she relaxes again, though her hand is still tightly clenched around… something? A charm? Riku can't tell. "So… then I suppose, all I can do is wait… and believe that Ventus will find his way home to me."

"Well…" Naminé says. "Maybe Sora's scattered memories will offer us a clue. I'll try my best to keep repairing them, and if I find something, I'll be sure to tell you!"

"All right," Aqua answers, her smile sad, but honest before she turns serious again. "We should move Sora to this chamber. It's enchanted… in a way that only allows a person that already knows where it is to find the way inside. That way, even if that Organization returns… they won't be able to find him."

Riku nods, arms crossing over his chest. "Sounds like a good plan; the harder we make things for them, the better."

Aqua nods, then steps away from Ventus and walks up to Riku, taking a deep breath before she says: "Riku… I want to teach you how to use magic, and how to wield the Keyblade."

Riku blinks up at her, frowning before his eyes drift away in shame. "I lost the Keyblade to Sora though… I'm not sure if there's much to teach me."

He only looks up when Aqua touches his chin gently, prompting him to meet his eyes. "I think, you simply weren't ready then. I'll help you to become so… if you'll let me."

Riku hesitates for a second, then nods. "Sure… If you think that's possible, I'm willing to try."

Aqua nods and straightens, frowning for a second before she says: "What Mickey said about your path… and about your Darkness. I have to warn you about that. I've seen what happened to Terra… he was pushed into using his Darkness too… gave into rage and grief and hate… and it cost him control of his body. You, of all people, know what that's like. It's the road to nightfall… an eternal Darkness that can't be escaped. You shouldn't follow a road like that."

If she had told him this a month ago, Riku thinks, he would have bristled about the presumption that he cannot control the Darkness. He knows much better now, knows his own Darkness… and has accepted it.

So, he just shakes his head and offers her a small grin.

"I know the dangers of the Darkness… but if I look away, if I just deny that it's there… that's when it truly will get ahold of me."

He glances over at Naminé, who knows just like he does – who had asked him to face his Darkness… because he is the one who can do it. He knows that, thanks to her.

"You don't have to worry. I won't get possessed again."

He turns, ready to go upstairs and move those big capsules holding those three wise guys in their sleep down here into this chamber, but then halts to say: "And you are wrong… my road isn't the one to nightfall."

Riku twists his head back to look right at the other two, never more certain of the truth in his words than right at this moment:

"It's the road to dawn!"

"Axel has returned," Saïx's voice rings through the Round Room just as the black whispers of the Corridor of Darkness thread around his chair and reveal his form.

"That was earlier than we anticipated," says Xemnas, but unsurprised in spite of his words. "Has he found the chamber already?"

Saïx shakes his head, a faint scowl tugging on his lips. He is displeased with the number VIII's reason for returning, then. "He claims to have encountered… difficulties while searching the castle for it. Another Keyblade Wielder, he says."

Xemnas' head tilts at those news… a notion to keep his second-in-command talking. Another Keyblade Wielder, he thinks… that can only be one of two. And within Castle Oblivion, it should be…

"He says, she called herself Master Aqua."

Xemnas keeps himself from smiling.

Instead, he says: "How interesting… we shall keep an eye on that particular development. Whether she becomes threat or opportunity to our plans… the Organization will deal with her, when the time comes."

Saïx nods, not showing any of the disagreement he is feeling, surely.

"What of Roxas? Has he woken yet?" Xemnas asks, once more unsurprised when Saïx shakes his head.

"Not yet. But it can only be a matter of days… if he wakes at all."

Xemnas nods again, dismissing Saïx with a wave of his hand.

Later, after the Darkness has carried him to the ruins of Radiant Garden's castle and he has descended the stairs into the basement, he leans back in his chair at the center of the Chamber of Repose and finally allows himself that smile as his eyes linger at the empty suit of armor and the Keyblade right next to it.

"So, you've finally returned from the Darkness… my old _friend._ "

 _– End of Act 01 –_  
 _– To be Continued –_

Annnd with this we are done at Castle Oblivion… or are we? ;D

In any case, the next time I post we'll be entering the 358/2 Days arc, which means new character PoVs, even more complications for Aqua on her quest to get her friends back, lessons for Riku and an actual "redemption" arc for a certain someone.

I'm not sure yet if I'll keep Days as one act, or if I'll split it into two… I've planned out about the first third and I know my endgame so there's that at least. Maybe I'll keep replaying the DS game to make sure I'm hitting all character voices and such just right.

Anyway, once again, my biggest thanks to my Boyfriend for beta-reading and enduring everything I throw at him, related to this story or otherwise! 3

Please consider leaving me a review! See you next time! :D


	7. Act 02 – Chapter 01

Whooho, it's a new chapter and finally the start of Act 02!

I can't believe that's it's been over two months since my last update! But well, Kh3 happened, and while I might incorporate some elements of what happened there, this fic will stay within the rails I set for it back in October already and isn't about to leave them any time soon! ;D

No spoiler danger here, I can promise that!

So yea, please enjoy the first part of the Days Act! :3

 **\- Beyond The Long Darkness -  
** **\- Act 02 – Chapter 01 -**

 _[The sound of the gulls circling over the waves…_

 _Crickets chirping beneath the starry night sky…_

 _Two boys running along the sandy beach…_

 _The yard of a white castle, surrounded by mountains and green grass…_

 _A woman's… no, a girl's voice…_

" _You hopeless sleepyhead– I knew I'd find you snoozing down here!"]_

"Gimme a break…" Roxas finds himself mumbling as he wakes, groaning groggily as he rolls to his side and reaches up to rub at his eyes.

They feel as though someone glued them shut.

It's weird, really… the last thing he remembers is… exploring Agrabah with Xigbar. They had just been about to return to the Castle That Never Was, when… he'd passed out. Right?

He sighs and forces himself up, finally forcing his eyes open.

When he turns his gaze to the side, he finds seashells gathered by his bedside.

Weird.

His chest feels a little heavy as he forces himself out of bed and room… and towards The Garden That Interweaves Darkness and Light as he has done every day so far. Saïx will probably scold him for being late already…

Yet, when he gets there, he finds the room empty. No Saïx, no anyone… even the moogle that has set up shop in their castle is nowhere to be found.

It puts Roxas at a loss… until now there was always _someone_ around to help him at first, back when he had been totally blank and empty, or to direct him and give him orders, tell him about his duties…

Before he can think too much about the unease(?) that being all alone here leaves him at, he opens a Corridor to the first place that comes to mind – Twilight Town.

It's the first world in his spotty memory before that seventh day of his existence when Xemnas had introduced Xion to the rest of their Organization, the one, where he had sea-salt ice cream the very first time with–

 _Axel…_

Axel, who is…

"Gone." Xigbar said, when Roxas had asked him about what happened to the part of the Organization that had gone to Castle Oblivion, simple and without any emotion at all – like the fact that it is, like they hadn't been his comrades for so much longer than they were Roxas'–

His chest aches weirdly at the memory, especially when he passes the ice cream stall where Axel usually got them the sea salt ice-cream (for a moment, he considers, but it's supposed to be the _icing on the cake_ , he knows and he didn't do a mission today, so–)

It doesn't take more than a thought to open a Corridor up to the Clock Tower, even though Roxas doesn't really expect that it will really be much better to sit around there than it was to stay in the Garden; really what did he think he was going to–

He halts in his tracks when he rounds the corner to find someone sitting next to his usual spot; a tall figure's lanky limbs at ease as he licks away at his ice cream and watches the sun set, the light evening breeze tugging at bright red hair–

" _Axel_!"

The name escapes over Roxas' lips even though he can't quite believe what he's seeing, lightness spreading in his chest as his eyes widen – the other is supposed to be gone, they all had told him that, but, but he is _here_ now, so–

Axel flinches, a crunching noise coming from him before he starts coughing and lowers the stick with his ice cream away from his face, and usually Roxas would rush over and try to figure out what's wrong, but he can't quite find it in him to move at all, because–

Because…

 _Axel is here…_

Finally, the other Nobody gets control over his cough, grinning widely as he pushes to his feet. "Sheesh, Roxas, I didn't think you had that much life in you. Finally awake, are you, sleepyhead? Saïx told me you've been out for a while."

For all that Roxas has questions about just how long he's been asleep and why no one woke him when he should have gone to work, the first thing he can find to ask is: "But… they said that everyone in Castle Oblivion got _terminated._ I thought that you were–"

"What?" Axel laughs at that, as though the idea of anything happening to him was utterly absurd, "You thought _I_ got terminated?"

"Yea…" Roxas admits with a nod, "I was worried! Saïx wouldn't tell me anything!"

"Worried, eh?" Axel says, and shakes his head as he reaches forward to poke Roxas' forehead. "Now that would be a neat trick… you need a Heart to feel worried, you know."

Roxas reaches up to rub over the spot that had been poked, feeling warmth in his chest and his cheeks as he sits down right beside Axel, who settles down again to finish off his ice cream.

"So, did you only just wake up?" Axel asks after a moment, and Roxas finds himself nodding. "An hour ago, or so… there was no one else at the Castle, so I came here. I don't even know how long I've been asleep, but it feels like it must have been a while…"

"Well, I can't answer you that one," says Axel with a shrug, "I've only been back for a couple of da–"

He cuts himself off when they both here the click of heels against the stone from around the corner, Axel weirdly tense as they wait for whomever just arrived to appear.

"Ah! Roxas?!" Xion asks, a bright smile tugging on her lips when she spots him. "You are awake again!"

"You are… Number XIV, right?" Axel asks, still a bit tense, but Roxas disregards that to greet her.

"Xion! You came!"

She laughs lightly at that and nods. "I've been coming here every now and then on my own, but it was never the same without you. You've been sleeping for three weeks."

"Coming here?" Axel cuts in, a slight frown on his face. "Since when?"

"I showed her the spot." Roxas explains, turning back to his very first friend. "That reminds me! We've been meaning to ask you something!"

Xion settles beside him and nods: "Yes! Roxas didn't know and said we should ask you."

Axel's head tilts a little, a crease appearing between his brows as he says: "Okaaay? What is it that got you two so worked up?"

Roxas nods, hands clenching in his lap. "You and I are friend, right? Xion asked if she could be my friend too!"

"Uhh," says Axel, eloquently, "That's it? That's what you wanted to ask me?"

He reaches up to scratch the back of his head, upon seeing Roxas nod eagerly. "You sure know how to put a guy on the spot. It's really not something that you need to ask me about, you know."

"I don't?" Xion asks a little uncertain.

"Well, of course not – friendship's not _that_ formal. You don't have to ask me for permission to be friends with Roxas."

Roxas can feel Xion shift beside him, can hear that uncertainty still in her voice. "And… if I want to be friends with _you_?"

"With me?" Axel repeats, sounding startled. "But you don't even know me."

"Roxas told me a lot about you," Xion says, smiling faintly. "So… I think I'd like to be friends with you too. If that's okay."

"Well…" Axel says, rubbing the back of his head again before waving his empty ice cream stick at her. "Then you better pay up for a round of ice cream for all of us."

From the corner of his eye, Roxas can see Xion's eyes widen and a large smile spreading over her face as she nods eagerly. "Sure!"

But before she can get up, Roxas shakes his head, frowning. "Wait! Only get two… for yourself and Axel. I didn't go on a mission today."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Axel asks, after reaching over to put his hand on Roxas' shoulder, almost seeming concerned.

"Well, you said it's supposed to be the icing on the cake!" Roxas says, certain that he's right, that he hasn't _earned–_

"Well, sure, but you don't have to deny yourself just because you didn't go on a mission, Roxas," Axel says with a laugh and a shake of his head. "Some days need some icing, even if you think you didn't earn it. Maybe especially then. Get that memorized!"

"But–" Roxas wants to argue, but Axel cuts him off before he gets much further. "You just woke up after three weeks, so I'd say you deserve that icing today. Okay?"

"So…" Xion trails off at their side, looking a little concerned. "Three ice creams?"

Roxas looks up to share a glance with Axel, then turns back to Xion and smiles.

"Three ice creams!"

* * *

The stars shine brightly above her as Aqua threads the grassy pathway that leads towards the Mysterious Tower. Their gleam feels welcoming, a greeting from the wider Realm of Light that exists outside of the transformed castle that she will always call her home and for just a moment she really wants to stand still and enjoy their closeness.

(Just how will her first time re-experiencing the sun's light feel? The soft warmth burning against her skin… just thinking of how easy it would be to indulge herself and slip into another world that exists in the daylight almost makes it hard to breath.)

She takes a deep breath to smell the faint fragrance of spring flowers in the air, then shakes her head and focuses again.

As much as she'd like to linger in the moment… she has come to see Master Yen Sid. Even if Master Eraqus' old friend isn't expecting her, she doesn't want to leave Riku and Naminé by themselves… not for long at least, not while that Organization is out for them all.

And that's why she's here after all, no? That Organization… she has to find out more about them, from a source that can actually be trusted.

Her heels click loud against the steps as she climbs up the familiar stairs; it's been so long since the last time she was here and yet… how can her time in the Realm of Darkness feel like a mere month at best and a lifetime at the very same time?

The hinges of the door to Master Yen Sid's office squeak as she pushes it open, not bothering to knock. The old Master, she finds, is standing by the moon-shaped window with his back facing her, but before she can even say a word, Master Yen Sid's deep voice sounds through the room.

"Master Aqua… the stars have told me of your return to our Realm."

He slowly turns towards her, his gaze heavy with the past decade, tired in a way that he hadn't been when she had last seen him.

"It warms my Heart to see you well."

"Thank you," she replies, her right hand coming up to clench right above her heart. "I'm glad…"

She can't help but trail off there – she is glad for so many things right now, small things that she had taken for granted before–

The pain of her nails digging into her palms snaps her back into the present. She ignores the faint frown of concern that Master Yen Sid considers her with and takes a few steps forward until she stands before his desk.

"Master Yen Sid," she says, now tense and alert. "I've come here for guidance. It has been only been a few days since I returned to the Realm of Light, but I can already tell that much has changed. The threats we face now… the Heartless and that Organization of Nobodies… please tell me how bad it truly is."

The old master sighs as he eases himself back into his seat behind the desk, but when he looks up at her, his eyes are sharp.

"You are right… the Worlds now are not the same you left behind. Much Darkness has spread since your disappearance – mostly in form of the Heartless – but what I could glean from the stars about the Organization is that which truly troubles me…"

His brows furrow, before he waves his hand and the small illusions of thirteen cloaked figures appears on the table before her.

"Thirteen they were, and even though five of them have fallen… the strength of the Organization does seem to grow rather than to falter."

The number of figures reduce as he talks and Aqua can't help but press her lips together. If she hadn't let Axel get away…

"I was told… that it is Xehanort's Nobody that leads them," she says after a moment. "I know that I was the one that sent him back… please Master, how much harm has he done to the Worlds since?"

"He has been biding his time, I fear," the master replies slowly. "No doubt he was awaiting the same thing as I… the emergence of another Keybearer."

She tenses at that; it's not hard to guess just who he is talking about: "Riku and Sora."

Master Yen Sid inclines his head and continues: "They've been busy children… but no. Right now, I fear, the Keyblade is under Xehanort's control."

Aqua feels shock echo through her as she asks: "Another Keyblade Wielder? You don't think… is it Terra!?"

"I cannot say," the master admits, and Aqua can't help but feel her Heart sink again. "But whoever it is, they have been collecting Light… no doubt by gathering Hearts from the Heartless. Xehanort… no matter what form he has taken, we must assume that his goal remains the same."

And that can only be one, Aqua knows: "…Kingdom Hearts."

The other master nods, a grim frown on drawing creases into his face. "We must not let him succeed."

"Right," Aqua says, her hands clenching tightly. "I won't let Xehanort win. No matter what happens."

* * *

It's a little strange to live in Castle Oblivion as she does now, Naminé sometimes thinks to herself… to be not a prisoner to be constantly watched and intimidated… to be _free_!

Getting up to the knowledge that Marluxia and Larxene are no more… maybe she shouldn't feel quite so glad about their defeat, because death is death, and a Nobody can only fade into nothingness without even a Heart to leave behind–

They _deserved_ what they got, the quiet rebellious voice in her whispers – not because they hurt her (a witch like her might deserve no less), but because they hurt _Sora_ , because of what they were planning to have Naminé do to him–

The viciousness of her own thoughts makes her a little uneasy, sometimes.

The past week had been defined by the changes that living in the castle with Riku and Aqua instead of the Organization have brought – she has lost count of the times that Riku had told her – kindly, always – that she need not apologize for the slights and imperfections that only she seems to perceive.

(She should spend so much more time working on Sora's memories, she's sure. The breaks she takes, that Riku and Aqua are coaxing her into taking… she doesn't deserve their kindness.)

They have worked out something of a routine – a breakfast together before Naminé leaves for the Chamber of Waking, while Aqua and Riku work together on exterminating the remaining Heartless within the Castle. They join her sometimes later, to spend time with their sleeping friends… at least until it's time for dinner.

Today is a little different.

It's just her and Riku for one – Aqua has declared that the castle is now safe enough for them so that she can dare a short trip to another world… to see someone that she called Master Yen Sid. The King's teacher, she said.

For another, Riku has been distracted… not just today, but the past few days before that already too. She isn't sure, if Aqua noticed as much – she can see the first signs of Riku's broody moods thanks to the memories of Sora and Kairi… but that doesn't mean she knows quite what to do.

Sora and Kairi had always just left him be, but maybe that had been a mistake… because keeping so much to himself, bottling up his true feelings… isn't that what had Riku into Ans- Xehanort's arms in first place?

She slowly sets down her pencil at the thought, eyes lingering at the picture she's working on right now – a memory from Sora's point of view… looking up the Rising Falls before Hollow Bastion, right at the backs of Riku, Donald and Goofy as they disappear into the castle.

This memory is one of the very few that she's managed to gather up so far… there are so many more still missing that she can't seem to get a grip off… especially those of Kairi.

She worries a little about that… but not enough yet, that she thinks it worth mentioning to Riku or Aqua.

Still, this is not one the pictures that she is going to display on the walls here or in her room… or on the fridge, like Aqua had insisted on doing with the picture she had drawn of Sora's childhood memory.

It's one that she will never show Riku, not if she can help it. He doesn't need that reminder of those times, surely.

She closes her sketchbook and pushes herself from her seat at the table that they've brought up here so that she can work, hugging it close as she walks over to where Riku is sitting leaned back against Sora's capsule.

He's been quiet since coming here, only occasionally turning a page from a book that he's borrowed from the castle's library, but even just by glancing at him now she can tell that the book isn't where his attention truly is.

"Some munny for your thoughts?" she asks him, a shy smile tugging at her lips.

Riku doesn't quite flinch away from wherever his thoughts have taken him… but he does startle just a little, shaking his head firmly before he looks up to meet her eyes.

"My thoughts aren't that important that you need to buy them," he says after a moment, a faintly teasing grin… but she can read in his eyes, that he's still distracted.

"Then you can share, no?" she prompts him as she sinks down to her knees beside him.

He doesn't quite look at her then, not until she sets down her sketchbook and takes one of his hands into her own.

"Please, Riku. You don't have to keep everything to yourself anymore… and if there's anything I can do to help…"

He knows that she would do anything… for him and for Sora. Doesn't he? He relents after a moment, sighing as he shoots her a dismayed look.

"It's the Organization," he starts, and now Naminé thinks that she understands just why he hadn't wanted to talk with her… he had wanted to shield her, hadn't he?

"I understand if you don't want to talk about–"

"I don't mind," she says, and she doesn't. For all that the Organization's members hadn't been terribly kind to her… they are their enemies. Surely, they can't afford to put so much importance on her comfort.

She squeezes Riku's hand lightly, to encourage him to speak up his mind. "So… what about the Organization?"

"…Well, there is still so much that we know about them. Sure, Aqua is off right now to find out what Mickey's teacher knows… but really, I wonder if we shouldn't have heard out DiZ."

Naminé averts her eyes from him, unable to keep from flinching a little. That man… he had been much better than Marluxia and Larxene, but still she had been able to sense the deep hatred he held for her… and her kind.

Now, Riku is the one squeezing her hands to give her comfort.

"Not about moving Sora… but from what he said, he must have watched the Organization for a long time already. He's got to know a lot more about the members that haven't been to this castle, especially if some of them were his apprentices."

She nods at that – it seems a fairly logical conclusion. Still… "Aqua won't approve of him coming back."

Riku snorts. "No, she won't. And I doubt she'd let me go search for him either."

Naminé tilts her head slightly as she asks: "You think so? Why?"

"Well…" Riku says, snapping the book in his hands finally shut before looking down at the cover. "I'm just a kid in her eyes. You and I, both. I'm pretty sure she wants to protects us by leaving us both stuck here."

He looks restless, like in those final days on the Islands.

"Is that what you think you are? 'Stuck here?'" she asks careful, because she knows… he used to be able to summon the Dark Corridors. Whether he still can do so…

Riku turns his hand up, looking at the palm of his free hand. "I… I don't know for sure. I've been a little afraid to find out."

"Then…" Naminé says, biting at her lip before squeezing his hand again. "Maybe right now is just the time."

Because Aqua isn't here… and if this is something that Riku wants to do, that he feels he should be doing, then neither of them should stop him, she's sure.

Riku looks at her with faint air of hesitation that is so unlike him that she squeezes his hand yet again and nods at him. Finally, he nods back before pushing up to his feet.

"All right then…" he says, before stretching out his hand. "Here goes nothing!"

He takes a deep breath, his eyes slipping close as he concentrates and Naminé, by now also on her feet, can't help but hope for him… because she can't help him, if he is unable to open the Corridor by himself. For all that her connection to Sora's memory and her ability to manipulate them is strong… opening the Dark Corridors far enough to exit this world is beyond her, she's certain.

And even if she could open an exit for him… she wouldn't be able to help him get back.

She sighs in relief when the Darkness heeds his call after a moment, springing up and forming the flaming exit to the worlds outside Castle Oblivion.

"You did it!"

Riku opens his eyes again, winking at her for a moment as a satisfied grin flashes over his face… before he lets the corridor die down again.

"I probably shouldn't have tried that here," he admits. "But I'm glad that I can do it."

Naminé leans down to pick up her sketchbook and nods, then bites at her lip again before saying: "So… you should go, then. Find DiZ and ask him about the Organization. I'm sure he'll tell you what you want to know."

"Yea…" Riku says with another snort. "And then he'll make me choose again, no doubt. But I guess… you can't get something for nothing, right?"

He moves to the exit of the Chamber of Waking, probably to get the coat that DiZ had left him, Naminé realizes… the same coat that the members of the Organization wear. The coat that will keep him safe from the Darkness, she corrects herself after a moment.

Yet, before Riku opens the door, he hesitates… turning back to her. "Are you sure you'll be all right here, all by yourself?"

Naminé nods. "Don't forget, I'm not alone. Even if they are sleeping… I have Sora, Donald and Goofy here… and Ventus too! You don't have to worry about me."

Riku nods back after a moment, reassured and certain of his own mission now. "Right. I promise, I'll be back soon."

And with that, he turns, the door to the Chamber of Waking creaking as he pushes it open and then closes it right behind him, without looking back. Naminé, too, turns back towards her table and her pencils.

She has a picture to draw… and a memory that needs to be pieced together back to as it was.

* * *

The clouds drift lazily high in the orange-red skies of Twilight Town, throwing gentle shadows that slowly drift from house to house, over streets and roof tops – a harbinger of the eternal Darkness that awaits just a world away. To those that live in this world, it must be hard to imagine that such a peaceful town is only degrees away from a place where Darkness and Nothingness gather.

How utterly peculiar the worlds are, truly, DiZ things as he ducks into the shadows of the Tunnelways that lead away from the town and into the woods.

"Careful, my old friend," he warns King Mickey – who, guided by that brightly shining Heart of his, had caught up to him as he had left Castle Oblivion and its guardian behind, insisting on coming along with him. "This world is close to the Organization's stronghold and from what I have observed they use it in order to train up their own. We must not be spotted, lest we'll be discovered."

"Well," Mickey says, ever the optimist, "that's what you gave me this cloak for, no?"

DiZ cannot help but chuckle. "And as I told you then… their ears won't be fooled so easily. Any chatter of our presence will certainly reach them."

"Then, I'll just have to make certain that there won't be any chatter. Though… why come here in first place, if it's so close to the Organization?" Mickey asks, his tail curling a little as he frowns.

"Because I know how Xehanort thinks… and that he certainly won't expect us here – right under his nose. He won't think that anyone would dare to work against him from so close to home," DiZ says, a hard edge in his voice, and he can feel old hatred against his former apprentice burn in his chest.

The plans for vengeance that he has been working on for so long, that he had set in motion the moment he had given young Riku the means to escape the eternal Darkness and start his journey through Castle Oblivion… they are not ruined by the sudden appearance of the strange other Keybearer, Aqua, but certainly derailed.

DiZ certainly doesn't know what to make of the young woman… or how to figure her into his plans, just yet. It won't matter for now, he's certain, not while Sora isn't an active force to think of.

While he has neither of the boys as help, nor control of the witch girl Naminé, or Aqua's support… for now he has King Mickey. For all that his friend likely disapproves of the reasoning behind his plans, fact remains that the Organization must be dealt with.

For now, DiZ is sure, their common goal will unite them.

The first step is to return to his, now their base of operations – an abandoned mansion just beyond the woods they've just stepped into. He takes a deep breath when they finally reach the gates leading into the slowly decaying building.

Surely, it will hide them well, as well as it has hidden DiZ these past few years since his escape from the Dark World already.

"It is a far cry from the facilities I used to have at my disposal in Radiant Garden," he says as he leads Mickey around the rooms, "But I've made due with what I have now."

Mickey nods, and is almost about to go off and find himself a room to claim, when the loud click of the front door echoes through the mansion, and up into DiZ's study. He exchanges a glance with the King before they both nod at another and make haste back towards the entrance.

The sight that greets DiZ makes his stomach coil with hatred – it's a black-coated figure, too small to be any one of his former apprentices… but certainly not to be their recently acquired Keybearer.

"He must not escape!" he exclaims as Mickey is already moving, summoning his Keyblade while jumping over the rail and reading a light spell to unleash against the Nobody–

Who takes a step back and lifts his hands, one waving in surrender as a familiar, young voice speaks up: "Woah, guys, take it easy! It's just me!"

Then, he pulls back the hood and reveals himself to be…

"Riku?!" Mickey asks, surprise coloring his tone, "What are you doing here? Did something happen in Castle Oblivion?!"

The boy shakes his head. "No, no… everyone is fine, Your Majesty. You don't have to worry."

"Well, that's good," Mickey says, exhaling in relief as he dismisses his Keyblade again. "And don't worry about titles – we are pals, aren't we? So, please… call me Mickey."

Riku nods after a moment, a shy smile tugging at the boy's lips. They are getting distracted, DiZ notes with irritation.

"Not to break up your reunion but why are you here, young Riku? And–," and that's the most pressing question, "–how did you find us in first place?"

The King is protected by the coat, after all, and DiZ… well, the Darkness in him should blanket any trail that he–

"Well, you said you'd be just a world away." the boy says, pulling him out of his thoughts. "So, between that and knowing the scent of your Darkness, it wasn't that hard to track you guys down."

"My Darkness?" DiZ can't help but note this with worry – if a mostly untrained child can track him by it…

Riku just nods, unaware of his alarm. "It has a very distinctive smell. Though, I doubt that anyone could track you by it unless they already met you."

Huh, okay maybe the boy wasn't quite so unaware as he had thought.

"As for why I'm here," Riku continues, looking up to meet DiZ's gaze. "I want to know more about the Organization. You said they are a threat and our encounter in Castle Oblivion proved that too. Aqua might have been within her right to throw you out of there, but I know that we need your knowledge of them anyway. We'll just be sitting ducks if we wait for them to come to us again, no matter how strong the defenses of Castle Oblivion are."

He swallows heavily, his hands clenching. "You can't understand what you don't know, and it's harder to fight what you don't understand."

DiZ nods at the boy, smiling to himself. For all that the boy has made mistakes… he has learned from them too. There are no doubt reasons why Xehanort had chosen him as his vessel.

"Come up to my study," he says. "We'll talk there."

Minutes later, Riku and Mickey have gathered behind his chair to have a good look at his computer's screen as DiZ pulls up the intel files he has made of the Organization's structure and hide out.

"This–" he says, tapping at a picture of the Castle That Never Was with his gloved finger, "–is their main stronghold in The World That Never Was. This the closest I've dared to come to it – it is well defended by Heartless and lesser Nobodies alike. Unless the Organization's numbers are further reduced, I don't recommend going there. A frontal attack on them is certain to be suicide."

Riku nods, his lips pressed to a thin line as he takes in the stark white castle in the darkness of starless night. He doesn't say anything as DiZ goes through the details of each sort of lesser Nobody, and then of the actual remaining members of the Organization.

He tries to waste as little thought as possible on just how much more detailed his notes on his former apprentices are, compared to the ones he has on the neophytes. It is only the intel that matters… not how he comes to know it.

It's only when they reach the Number Thirteen that Riku speaks up, frowning: "There's no picture of them."

DiZ nods, displeased with his own lack of findings so far… but well, it couldn't be helped, especially since… "The Number Thirteen only joined very recently, so I have not been able to gather much information on it beyond its existence. Not even a picture. However…"

He leans back in his seat, turning his head to study the boy at his side, who is still focused on the computer screen. "What whispers I did manage to gather about it allows me to draw certain conclusions."

The boy turns his head, listening attentively. In another time and life, he might have made an excellent apprentice.

"The Organization has been making a lot more noise since the Thirteen was initiated into their ranks. Until now they have kept to themselves… just spied on the worlds outside their own and Castle Oblivion, but never interacting with them. Now, however, they send out their members to spread and defeat Heartless."

Riku's head tilts. "Isn't that contradictory?"

But Mickey's ears perk in alarm, his eyes widening. "You can't be suggesting… They found a way to gather those Hearts?!"

"Most likely…" DiZ notes grimly. "Though, I don't know with what intent, I do know the tool they must be using. The Number Thirteen must be wielding a Keyblade."

"What?!" Riku exclaims. "No way…"

But well… DiZ had not earned the epithet "the Wise" in another life for no reason at all. "Between this fact, and the timing of the Thirteenth Member's appearance… his identity is clear…"

He turns in his seat, meeting the boy's startled gaze as he voices the no-doubt unpleasant truth.

"The Number Thirteen is Sora's Nobody."

 _\- To Be Continued -_

A big thanks to the boyfriend, even if I didn't let him proof read this one! |D;

Also thanks to everyone who commented so far, and also a special thanks to the people of the Kingdom Hearts Creative Server on Discord who all have been great to chat and bounce ideas at!

Please consider leaving me a review! See you next time! :D


End file.
